The Tale of Uzumaki Naruto
by Jimmy Coin
Summary: AU. Naruto makes a bet with Iruka that in one year's time, he can become a Hand Seal master. After successful completion of his test, Naruto must learn to cope with his emerging power, training alone, and training his own team. No romance.
1. Proposition

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything.

**Chapter 1: Proposition**

_'Eighty-six, eighty-seven, eighty-eight...'_ counted off a blond haired kid doing push-ups upside down as he used his legs to balance themselves against the nearby tree when he needed it. Sweat was dripping into his eyes as his fingers tremble from the weight forced only on his fingertips and his dark blue shirt clung to his upper body from sweat. His orange jacket was discarded only feet away as his faced showed his struggle to keep himself up for only a few more moments.

_'Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred!'_ And on his way back up from his last push up, he used the last of his strength to push up hard enough so that actually did a back flip and landed in a crouch next to his jacket. The boy picked up said jacket and mopped his sweaty face, soaking the one spot on his jacket making it a darker orange. His breath huffed a few more times before he picked up a book under his coat and flipped to the dog-eared page.

_'Yuuku Seiyuuki... B-Class missing-nin from Waterfall... Specializes in Taijutsu, ranked solid A-class in execution. However, he lacks Genjutsu and only scant Academy level Ninjutsu. He also has moderate to high level skill with Nin-tools (refer to chart for a more detailed description)...'_

The boy, Naruto, looked down to said chart and studied it obsessively, trying to commit it to memory. He had seen dozens of these charts from the Bingo Book he stole from a distracted ANBU guard of the Hokage's. Each one was distinctly different, with the only thing in common was the labels of: 'nin, gen, tai, blood, and nin-tools.'

The reason why each was so different was that it applied to each ninja individually. For instance, Yuuku Seiyuuki had from the center of his chart to the top of of the 'tai' portion nearly filled. However, his 'gen' had nothing jutting out from it and one could barely see anything coming from his 'nin.' His 'tool' portion stopped at almost the half way point.

However, that wasn't the most fascinating chart Naruto had seen. That chart belonged to a ninja whose page Naruto looked at everyday. One who Naruto wished his chart would like some day soon. The page was that of Uchiha Itachi, where most, if not all of the points were filled to the max. Itachi hadn't focused on a single aspect of a ninja specialty, thus making him versatile and able to fight any opponent, despite specialties. Naruto desired to be that strong, so that one day, the villagers that looked at him with disgust, would one day look up to him with admiration.

Naruto shut the book with a snap as he withdrew some kunai and launched them into the surrounding trees. From first glance, it didn't look too special by ninja standards, but once he hopped into the center point of all the thrown kunai and didn't land back on the ground, but stayed in the air, it would raise a few eyebrows. Upon closure inspection, one would see ninja wire stretched between different pairs of kunai, with Naruto precariously balanced on one of the wires (there were eight wires between sixteen kunais that crisscrossed).

Naruto steadily went through the katas of the Academy taijutsu, falling every few minutes and usually getting cut on the way down from the sharp wires. While letting his body move once he got used to his position on the wires, he let his mind drift. The brilliant green grass underfoot showed how many times he had fallen, since most of the grass was pushed flat to the ground. The canopy of the trees blocked out light and most of the heat, making for a pleasant atmosphere, that is if one wasn't training like Uzumaki Naruto.

He was supposed to be at the academy right now. No doubt Iruka would be angry at him skipping today. On average, he probably attended twenty percent of the time, resulting in his poor grade in class. He was often times referred to as the 'dead last' or 'loser' of his class year. It didn't bother Naruto though. While they learned different things like etiquette or history of the village, he was usually perfecting his various skills or enhancing his body through exercises.

He finished his stances and hopped down again as he walked around, rocking each kunai back and forth trying to pull out the points of the little daggers. Once he rolled them up and placed them back into his pouch, he let loose a foxy grin and said to no one in particular, "It was a good day today, I think I deserve some ramen!" Naruto then proceeded to the best ramen place in Konoha, Ichiraku ramen. However everyday Naruto believed he deserved some ramen. Like if he had a bad day, he deserved ramen to cheer up, or if it was only a normal day, he needed ramen to spice up his day.

However, once he walked in, happy as he ever was (laughing at nothing in particular, just enjoying the scenery), he deadpanned. Sitting in his favorite stool was none other than Iruka, his Academy sensei. The scarred teacher had a vein throbbing above his eye as one of his hands impatiently tapped the counter.

"So, you miss my class three to four times a week, but every night you have no trouble making it to here same time every day," Iruka grumbled out angrily.

"Uh, it's night already?" Naruto chuckled out nervously as his hand went instinctively to rub the back of his head.

"Shut up Naruto," Iruka snapped out. "So, answer my question: why don't you come to class everyday, but make it a point to come here almost constantly? I thought you cared about becoming a ninja!"

"Well, you see the truth is..." Naruto tried to stall for an answer, until he saw the old man Ichiraku himself walk about making a new pot of ramen, "Old man Ichiraku needs me!"

"He needs you?" Iruka said in a disbelieving voice.

"Y-yeah, you see, if it weren't for me, he'd have to close his stand, see, then his wonderful daughter Ayame wouldn't have any money to buy the pretty things she deserves," Naruto said with a nervous foxy grin as he watched Ayame take a hand full of bowls around a packed ramen stand.

"So, you are single handedly making sure Ichiraku stays in business?" Questioned Iruka, rubbing the bridge of his scarred nose.

"Pretty much," Naruto remarked as his chest puffed out, thinking he had convinced Iruka.

"What about all these people?" Iruka asked, quickly losing his patience with the blond.

"Uh... um... what people?" Whimpered Naruto as the inevitable punch to the back of his head occurred and he was forcefully knocked down to the floor. Once he got up, two bowls of ramen were sitting in front of Iruka, miso and his favorite, pork. Naruto licked his chops as he stared at the bowl of pork and occasionally flicked his eyes to the miso bowl. Once a strand of drool reached the floor, Iruka cleared his throat.

"_If_ you tell me the _real_ reason why you always skip my classes, I'll let you have _both_ bowls here."

Naruto quickly licked his lips, "Fine," he snapped out, trying to get his reason out as quick as possible to get the ramen. "The Academy is boring. I've learned all it can teach me. I know the three jutsus-"

"Two." Iruka interrupted.

"Huh?" Naruto asked as he scratched his head.

"You only know the two. You can't make a Bunshin," Iruka said.

"Does it matter? When is the last time you needed to make a Bunshin?" Naruto shot back, hoping like hell Iruka would give him the ramen soon.

"I don't go on regular missions, Naruto. However, it matters, greatly. It isn't taught at the Academy for nothing you know," Iruka stated as he started to play with one of bowls of ramen, sliding back and forth in between his hands.

"Yeah right, a real ninja has to make imaginary images of themselves all the time to avoid the scary bad ninja. That's bull. A real ninja is more likely to do some kick ass Ninjutsu than a stupid Bunshin. I know that's what I'd do," Naruto said.

"Yeah," Iruka remarked, "then show me one of these 'kick ass Ninjutsu' you know."

Naruto chuckled nervously again as his hand snaked its way to his neck as he rubbed it uncomfortably. "I don't know any," he said.

"I wonder why?" Iruka asked a seemingly rhetorical question, only to be answered by Naruto.

"Because you won't teach any in class," shot back an irritated Naruto with arms folded over his chest.

"I can't teach you any until you prove that you can do a perfect Bunshin. Naruto, the Bunshin isn't just for busy work, but to get you used to molding Chakra and getting you used to using it. Until you can build up enough reserves through simple Academy jutsu, which by the way, is very important to any shinobi."

"Bull crap Iruka. You just feel like being a bastard. You're also too lazy to bother," Naruto said, waving off his explanation.

"Okay, I'll make a deal with you: if you can some how pass the Genin exam, I'll get your Jounin instructor to 'school' you on the uses of the three jutsu," Iruka said.

"Nope, no deal," Naruto said with arms still folded over his chest and shaking his head.

"Huh? Why not?" Iruka questioned, now twirling the pork bowl around, nearly splashing the contents on to the table.

"I don't want to be on a team," Naruto said. "All I will do is stupid chores and crap with two other kids. I could do those chores quicker myself than with others slowing me up."

"The point behind that is to build team work, Naruto. Besides, _you_ can't make that decision. You need a team to advance in rank anyways," Iruka reasoned off.

"I won't," Naruto said. "I'll just go from Genin to Hokage. You should know better Iruka-sensei than to classify someones skills just on their rank alone. I'll be the most powerful Genin ever!" Naruto said as he pumped one of his fists into the air.

"And one of the oldest," Iruka mumbled under his breath. "So why don't you come to class?" Iruka asked, once more getting back to the matter at hand.

"Ah, that stuff you teach is boring," Naruto exclaimed. "I can throw several kunai's perfectly, I've perfected the Academy Taijutsu, and I've been building my stamina. If I went to class, I'd just be wasting time."

"All that crap is taught for a reason, Naruto," Iruka scolded.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard it before Iruka-sensei, not even you think it's worthwhile."

"Actually, I think it's _very _worthwhile." Iruka remarked.

"Oh yeah, pray tell oh glorious sensei," Naruto shot back, somewhat bitter that he hadn't received his ramen bowls yet.

"It builds a foundation for every ninja," Iruka began. "If a house is built on, say sand, it's unstable and easily crumbles at the right time. However, a house built on cement will last for years."

"Hum, so you say if I get theses 'lessons,' I'll be a more rounded shinobi?" Naruto asked, scratching his chin, already thinking of Itachi's Nin-chart and then his side by side after a few years, looking identical.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it," Iruka said with a questioning look. He didn't think he'd be able to win over Naruto that easily. "Why so interested in being 'well-rounded,' Naruto?"

Naruto thought quickly. No one below Chuunin rank were allowed to see the contents of a Bingo book. However, he wanted to see what Iruka thought of his idea, that is, if was any good or realistic. "Well, when I'm not in your class or training," Naruto began his lie, "I walk around the different training grounds. I always notice that most, if not all, upper level ninjas have some sort of specialty, like taijutsu or weapons.

"I want to be like that one guy, Uchiha Itachi, or whatever his name is," Naruto said. Iruka raised an eyebrow at his remark about Itachi. Iruka wasn't sure where he learned about him, as it wasn't very common knowledge of what happened to kids his age. "Wasn't he able to become an expert in all shinobi fields or something?"

"Well, yes," Iruka began, "but the Uchiha did have something that set him apart from the rest, Naruto. He had the Sharingan. He could copy any Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and sometimes taijutsu just by watching another ninja perform the moves."

"So you think I should focus on one area," Naruto asked in a guarded tone. Iruka could see himself sticking his foot in his mouth, but quickly pulled it out.

"No, I don't think you should," he started. "But I don't think it would hurt if you had some skill you focused more on."

"Like what?" Naruto asked, at this point both bowls of ramen were forgotten and cold, having both speakers getting caught up in the conversation.

"Well, for instance, becoming a seal master," Iruka said.

"What? Like hand seals?" Naruto asked.

"No Naruto ," Iruka chuckled, "No one could become a master of hand seals, since everyone knows hand seals, but writing seals, like the ones on explosive tags. But there are many more complex and useful ones than that."

"Ah," Naruto said as he scratched his head. "So why can't I be a hand seal master again?" Naruto asked. Iruka just huffed in indignation.

"Because, what is the point of becoming a hand seal master if everyone already knows the hand seals"

"I'll invent new ones," Naruto said simply.

"I'm not saying that you could," Iruka began in a restrained voice, "but what would be the point of creating a new one when one of the twelve in existence would work just as good, if you knew which one to use?"

"Well, I'll become a hand seal master to know which seal to use then," Naruto argued back. Iruka rubbed his head.

"Naruto, it would prove frivolous. Nothing could be achieved by becoming a 'hand seal master.'"

"Okay, Iruka-sensei, I'll make _you_ a deal," Naruto started, "If in one year I can prove that I'm on my way to becoming a hand seal master, you pass me to Genin rank and help me get out of team assignments."

"And if it does indeed prove frivolous?" Iruka asked.

"You'll never have to buy me another bowl of ramen again," Naruto said to which Iruka immediately replied, 'Deal,' and shoved the two cold bowls of ramen towards Naruto and walking back to his apartment. Neither noticed the other's smile of victory as Iruka left.

**AN: **New story here. Not as polished as I'd like, but hopefully this will wet your appetites. I'll post another chapter maybe in a week, week in a half.


	2. Clash of the Not so much Titans!

**Disclaimer:** You know what I own.

**Chapter 2: Battle of the (Not so much) Titans**

'Teme,' Naruto thought as he went skidding across the ground. Uchiha Sasuke wore an amused smirk as he finally landed a blow against the hyperactive ninja. The two were currently in one of their spars that they developed soon after the discussion Naruto had with Iruka. They had gotten into a fight after the first full week of Naruto attending classes. However, they both enjoyed the match (though neither admitted to it), and they both decided to fight in a pure taijutsu match at least once a week. So far, they had been fighting like that for nearly a year. Every time Sasuke won, though it wasn't a true win.

Naruto was correct when he claimed that he perfected the Academy taijutsu. He moved flawlessly and each move was powerful in its own right. However Sasuke had a much more powerful taijutsu learned, though not mastered. Sasuke's was also powerful, fluid, and unbelievably fast. However, he never perfected it, only learned it to a satisfactory level. So, with both styles either mastered or adequately perfected they usually came to a draw or having Naruto eek out a supposed win... until Sasuke started using Ninjutsu.

Naruto was usually resigned to using Kawarimi to dodge the balls of fire launched at him until both boys called it a day. That day however, Naruto had enough.

"Dammit Sasuke-teme, this is supposed to be pure taijutsu," Naruto yelled.

Sasuke smirked, "If you can't handle the heat..." he trailed off as his red eyes leered at Naruto. Since the two boys battles were usually intense, Naruto had helped Sasuke unlock his clan's Kekkai Genkai, the Sharingan. Naruto didn't know it, but Sasuke had put himself into Naruto's debt that day.

"You're scared aren't you Sasuke-teme. Afraid of the Dobe, aren't you?" Naruto taunted.

"Fine," Sasuke replied, "but I won't hold back anymore so don't cry if I beat you too badly."

"Ah bull, Sasuke. You know you've been trying like hell to beat me these last couple of months." Naruto's only response was a smirk from Sasuke as he beckoned him to fight. Naruto just grunted as he charged the bastard. Naruto was mildly surprised as he sailed through the air as Sasuke had finished his combo, leaving Naruto sore. Apparently Sasuke was holding back, power wise. However Naruto had made his very first jutsu the other day for such an occasion. Naruto got up and dusted himself off as he tipped an imaginary hat towards Sasuke.

"Well, well," Naruto remarked, "seems you'll finally be a challenge, Teme." Sasuke just smirked, which disappeared just as fast when Naruto shot him his own smirk. Naruto's hands were in the familiar seal of Ram, when he shouted, "**Wagomu Mau!**"

"W-what did you just call that?" Sasuke asked while trying to keep his chuckles in. Naruto just frowned and gave the same beckoning motion Sasuke gave him earlier. Sasuke shook his head one more time before charging. However, the jutsu was extremely surprising. For no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't land a punch, kick, or any other strike on Naruto.

Sasuke started to get sloppy in his frustration. Naruto would bend in almost inhuman ways, like he was water or, more importantly thinking of the name, rubber. Naruto saw Sasuke's wavering attention and began landing his own blows on Sasuke now that he some how bent his way into Sasuke's guard. His strikes focused on Sasuke's trunk, open palms striking ribs and his stomach. They weren't over powering hits, but enough to wind Sasuke. Sasuke finally untangled himself from Naruto and flipped a safe distance away.

"You baka, you shouldn't call that jutsu that," Sasuke spat as he thought of the ridiculous name Naruto gave it.

For Naruto's part, he simply stuck his tongue out and said, "I made it up so I can call it whatever I want."

"Fool!" Sasuke said, but smirked after a thought came to him. "It doesn't matter, I copied the technique, I'll just call it what I want to now."

"Good luck Teme, but this technique is useless to you," Naruto said in a matter of fact tone.

"Naruto, I know you understand the basic concepts of the Sharingan. _I copied the jutsu!_" Sasuke said as if he were talking to a young child.

"Well, it's not really a jutsu," Naruto said. Sasuke got a dumbfound look on his face before Naruto began to reiterate himself. "It's more of an ability. I only used Charka to support some of the more difficult aspects of the jutsu. I got that ability by training my balance and flexibility to near inhuman limits.

"I have no doubt you copied my movements," Naruto said, "but putting those movements to use is useless to you. You'll just fall on your face or hurt yourself. Wait," Naruto said as an after thought, "do try that technique. I could do with a laugh."

Sasuke just glared. Going over the technique, he did remember the moves, but he thought the Charka manipulation could help him. However, he only copied Naruto channeling Charka, which he could do already. It didn't faze Sasuke though. He had his own trump card. Naruto saw Sasuke's newly place smirk and smartly readied his defense of _Wagomu Mau_.

However, it was of no help. Sasuke was now moving incredibly fast. Naruto could barely track him with his eyes and couldn't even move his body out of the way of the strikes. Sasuke was able to land five hits on Naruto before Naruto could even feel the first. It wasn't soon after that that Naruto was panting on the ground and Sasuke stood feet away, smirking. He felt his ego was safely inflated that day and decided to call it quits. "See ya, Dobe" Sasuke grinned at Naruto's slumped over, panting body as he strutted out of their forest clearing training ground. Naruto merely held up his middle finger to Sasuke's retreating form.

Iruka had found Naruto in nearly the same position a half-hour later, though to Naruto's credit, he did flip himself onto his back. "Well, Naruto, it looks like you had one hell of a training session."

"Shut it Iruka," Naruto grounded out. "What are you doing here anyways? I haven't missed one of your little classes in months and today's the start of the weekend." Naruto was right as well. Ever since he and Iruka made the bet a year ago, Naruto had attended the classes, if only to fall asleep listening to Iruka drone on and on. He even slept through a couple of the tests, resulting in him nearly failing out of the Academy. The only reason he didn't was because Naruto had to be enrolled until at least the bet was over, one way or another. For only one who is enrolled in the Academy could be placed into the shinobi ranks.

"You've forgotten already? Great, that means I can watch you make a fool of yourself in front of the counsel _and_ save my money for more important things than buying you ramen!" Iruka chuckled darkly, rubbing his hands in anticipation.

Naruto had finally been able to sit up, but was still confused. "Iruka-sensei, what are you talking about?" He asked again, mirroring his previous statement.

"Don't you remember our bet?" Iruka asked. He watched as Naruto rested his chin on his hand as he could almost see Naruto sifting through his thoughts looking for some type of bet he made with Iruka.

Nearly a half-minute later, Naruto grinned and snapped his fingers as he yelled out, "Hell yeah I remember it. How could I forget something as important as that," which caused Iruka to give Naruto a dumbfound expression as Naruto began to laugh and, the only thing that came to Iruka's mind to describe the way he was walking, march in the direction of his apartment.

"Where are you going Naruto?" Iruka yelled at him as he jogged to catch up to the short blond.

"To my apartment. I got to get my notes. After that, you'll have no choice but to promote me to Genin," Naruto bellowed, seemingly forgetting the thrashing the Uchiha heir gave him over a half-hour ago.

"Naruto, I don't promote you," Iruka stated causing Naruto to stop in his tracks.

"Then who will promote me?" Naruto questioned.

"Well, the Hokage and his advisors will hear a proceeding led by you to convince them of why you should be promoted," Iruka explained in his normal teacher voice.

"You said that if I convinced you that _you_ would promote me!" Naruto whined.

"I don't have that authority," Iruka began to explain. "However, I have made an appointment with the Hokage and his advisors the day after our bet, ensuring my part that you would have the chance to argue your case."

"_Iruka-sensei_," Naruto whined again, "the Hokage's advisors hate me. It's not going to be _fair_!"

"Nonsense, Naruto," Iruka reprimanded. He knew of the advisor's hostility to Naruto, but they haven't been _forced _to talk to him before. Iruka was sure Naruto could convince them. However, he decided to give the blond a bit more confidence. "No matter what, if you present an air tight case, they will have no choice but to promote you. Especially since you got the Hokage on your side."

Naruto visibly brightened when hearing that. They finally arrived at Naruto's apartment and Iruka watched as Naruto shifted through his organized chaos with paper everywhere. It didn't look like Naruto was looking at the paper when he snatched it up and added it to his pile of notes. Iruka couldn't tell if Naruto was grabbing the right papers or not since Naruto snapped his concentration away from snooping.

"So, what will I have to do to convince them I'm Genin material?" He asked.

Iruka pondered for a second before specking more of the obvious inquiries the Hokage's advisors might ask Naruto, especially the ones that might trip him up. "Well, I assume they'll ask about your _specialization_," which Naruto nodded, telling Iruka to go on, "next I assume they'll ask why you shouldn't be placed on a team, then why you should be a Genin in the first place. After that, they just might ask questions along that vein to try and trip you up."

"Are you going to be there?" Naruto asked, straightening up and looking Iruka square in the eye.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," Iruka said with pride as he looked towards his (in his mind) surrogate son. Naruto smiled before it turned into his fox-grin.

"Then what are we waiting for, LET'S GO!"

Jutsu: **Wagomu Mau**: Rubberband Dance. Not really a jutsu. It just let's Naruto bend around his opponents strikes, if he can see them.


	3. Jiei Genin

**Disclaimer:** You know what I own.

**Chapter 3 Jiei Genin**

Naruto fidgeted as he was under the benign stare of the Hokage and the ugly glares of his two advisors. Naruto usually wasn't the type to fidget, but he understood the gravity of the situation. He also understood the odds that were placed that he would even succeed. However, Naruto had always liked beating the odds.

The Hokage cleared his throat and began, "Alright Naruto, you may begin your case for promotion and..." as he began to look over the file in his hand, "why you do not need to be put into a three man cell." Throughout his whole introduction, the two advisors remained stoic.

Naruto tugged on his orange jump suit's collar (despite Iruka trying to talk him out of wear it to the meeting) as he began his argument. "You see, Hokage," Naruto began, discarding his affectionate pet name for the old man, "I talked with Iruka-sensei about becoming a really strong ninja that could do everything from Ninjutsu to nin-tools better than everyone else.

"But he told me that it was a lost cause. He said that no matter what, every ninja has some specialty or something that sets them apart," Naruto explained. "I told him that I wanted to be a master of Hand seals," at which point, one of the two advisors finally snorted in cruel amusement.

"Homura," the Hokage chided lightly before giving Naruto a smile to continue.

Naruto gave the old man next to the Hokage a dirty look before finishing, "and here I am."

"And why should believe that because you have one hair brained idea that you should be promoted?" Questioned the ugly old lady on the other side of the Hokage.

Before the Hokage could reprimand her, Naruto had cut him off, "Because through extensive study, I can tell you why hand seals go with their respected jutsus, why some jutsus cannot be combined, and even create jutsus on a whim, after extensive study of course."

The sudden exclamation threw all three of the aging ninjas off guard, not to mention the statements he made. Even the Professor, or Hokage in other words, had never given much thought to the use of the most mundane things about the most vital thing to a ninjas career.

"Would you care to delve further into your _work_," the old man known as Homura asked.

Naruto gave him a scathing look before he obliged. "Well, since I have no _family_ I cannot learn any Ninjutsu or genjutsu. But what I can tell you is that the o-hitsuji seal is the most used seal in all jutsus, only less frequently in high powered jutsu or family or bloodline jutsu," Naruto explained.

"Every somewhat bright ninja knows that," the old lady spat back.

Again, before the Hokage could interrupt, Naruto jumped. "Not me, since the only jutsu I know that uses hand seals is the Bunshin, which I still can't do. But to further impress upon you my research I can tell you that most low level fire jutsu use the tora seal. However, did you know that you can increase the range of those jutsu if you followed the tora seal with a ryu then tori?

"Or that you can make a jutsu more potent if you hold the o-hitsuji seal longer? Or that if you hold one of the seals affiliated with an element for too long you'll destroy yourself? Or that you can apply seals to any jutsu that doesn't require seals?" Naruto kept asking before he finally ran out of air. The three old people looked at him fairly surprised. They had known some of the things and were surprised on some others.

Homura finally decided to have a chance at asking the boy something. "And what jutsus have you created?" Which surprisingly Naruto blushed as his hand went instinctively to the back of his head.

"I haven't yet," Naruto nervously chuckled out.

His chuckles were cut off when the old lady asked, and not in her normal scathing tone, but more out of surprise, "Why not?"

"I haven't really had a need to. Because of that, I don't know what to make. I also feel that I don't have sufficient knowledge in some areas of hand seals yet. I don't want to blow myself up or anything," Naruto finished chuckling.

The Hokage was a bit disgruntled that he hadn't been included on any of the talking. He saw his advisor beginning to ask another question before he decided to cut her off, "Koharu I believe that's enough for now. Why don't we begin on another vein?" It wasn't really a question. The Hokage's advisors might have incredible power, but they still didn't have Hokage power.

"Naruto," the Hokage began, "why do you feel placement on a team is not necessary?"

"Well, I don't need any teammates," replied Naruto in a matter of fact way.

"You do realize that having a team is more than that," Homura asked. The Hokage didn't like the inquisitive gleam in his eye.

"Huh?" Naruto smartly asked.

"Well, you get a Jounin sensei that teaches you important aspects of being a ninja. You go on dangerous missions to prove yourself as a ninja which also pays your way. If you do not have a team, you cannot get promoted, you cannot get well paying missions, and you will not get any advice on what to do when you get stuck on problems," Homura laid out the implications of Naruto not having a team.

Naruto gave a foxy grin before he replied, "Fine by me. I haven't had anyone help me before, I'll be damned if I need it now. I don't give a rat's ass about dangerous missions. We're ninja. We're bound to get in another war or something. I figure you'll need all the ninjas you can get by then. I don't care about rank, there are many powerful ninjas that don't have the rank they deserve, and weak shinobi with a rank too high. Plus, I want to be the first ninja to ever go from Genin to Hokage." Naruto finally said as he gave a good guy pose. The three ninjas visibly stiffened at the resemblance to Gai's good guy pose.

"Well Naruto," the Hokage began, "we have heard your case. If you would excuse us, we would like to talk privately for a few minutes. We'll call you in once we have decided your case." Naruto just smirked before he walked into the hallway. There was no way they would reject him.

Iruka was standing in the hall and asked Naruto how it went. "It was so kick ass," Naruto began, "I was nervous at first, but then they were putty in my hands. Yep, I wouldn't be surprised if they just made me Hokage here and now. Those old geezers need some youth injected into them, you know?" Naruto asked with a cocky grin. It would be even more bad ass if he went from academy student to Hokage.

Iruka for his part just raised a skeptical eyebrow. He knew of Homura's and Koharu's feelings towards his favorite student. However, before he could ponder anymore on the smirking kid across from him, they called Naruto back in. Naruto gave off an air of cockiness as he ask Iruka to follow him in. The two stood in front of the Hokage and his advisors, awaiting the final outcome.

Homura elected to speak. He gave Naruto a challenging grin before opening his mouth. "Naruto, you have stated your reasons for having no one on your team, and we have only minor problems with this," Homura said, eliciting a whoop from Naruto, thinking he had won. "First, _if_ you pass, Iruka will be a part time sensei to you, if he feels he is up to it." A surprised Iruka nodded numbly not thinking he would get his own personal student. For to have your own personal student was a mark of greatness.

"Good," Homura remarked, "you will teach Naruto what you wish during the summer months when the academy is not in session and whenever he asks you a question when the academy is in session. However, while the academy is in session, your primary role is to the academy, and Naruto second. If you are busy, feel free to send him to us," here he gestured to the Hokage and Koharu, "and we'll try to help him out the best we can."

"Does this mean I pass?" Naruto asked in excitement.

"Close, but not yet," Homura remarked with a grin.

He was cut off from a stern Koharu, "You mentioned before that you could not produce a normal Bunshin. For you to get the rank of Jiei Genin, you must produce a clone, right now, using your _specialization_. You have two minutes. Go."

Naruto balked. Everyone looked at him as he furiously went over his notes in his mind. He hadn't figured out how to produce anything from pure chakra. He could manipulate elements like the wind or fire, but he could never use pure chakra. That left him searching for something in the room, anything that could help him. He saw a lot of wood, but he didn't know any seals that would help him manipulate the wood itself. Other than that, just knick knacks and shadows. However, Naruto's mind couldn't get the shadow aspect to leave him. He thought over the seals in his mind, and surprisingly, he could apply the seals in order to manipulate the shadows of the room.

First was 'o-hitsuji' for focusing his chakra. Second was 'nezumi' to narrow his focus on the concealment aspect of 'nezumi'. The third one was 'o-hitsuji ' again, this time to feel the shadows around him. Fourth was 'tori' to gather the shadows around him. The others around the room had their eyebrows in their hair as they watched the shadows at their feet travel to Naruto. The fifth was 'usagi' for multiplicity. 'Saru' was sixth to grant intelligence to his soon to be clones and finally 'inu' to give them a loyalty to him and to commence the jutsu.

Naruto shouted, "**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**!" Which surprised the four inhabitants, but not as much as they watched four Narutos swirl up from shadows. They looked identical to each other, except that the true Naruto was smiling while the others were glaring around the room in a serious manner.

Homura clapped, but he was the only one who did. Naruto canceled the technique as the four clones vanished into nothingness. The Hokage smiled and he reached into his robes as he pulled out a hitai-ate attached to a red cloth instead of the standard blue. Naruto gave an inquisitive look to the weird looking cloth, before asking, "I thought the hitai-ate was supposed to be blue?"

"Well," Homura began, "because of your unique promotion, we felt that you needed something to commemorate it." The Hokage gave Homura a dark look before the advisor continued. "You are technically ranked higher than a Genin, but less than a Chuunin.

"That means you have access to the jutsu library, but no access to C-rank or higher missions. You are also not allowed to guard the gates or go on patrols, which pay _quite_ well." Naruto just shrugged. He didn't care about money or any of that. He was now higher ranked than a Genin. That was good enough to him.

The meeting finally ended as Naruto securely put his new hitai-ate upon his head. Homura surprisingly congratulated Naruto. The Hokage had asked Naruto to stay after everyone had left, Naruto had assured that he would meet Iruka at Ichiraku's later that night.

The first thing the Hokage did was pat Naruto on the head and smiled affectionately at him. Naruto mock pouted saying, "Damn old man always messing with my hair," which caused the Hokage to let loose a rumbling laugh. After some small talk, which mainly consisted of Naruto going on about his greatness, they had gotten down to business.

"Naruto, first things first congratulations again," at which Naruto's chest had puffed out for having so much praised heaped on him. "However, there is something I want to show you," at which point, the Hokage left for a couple of minutes until he came back with a large scroll. He placed it on his desk and unrolled it only far enough to display the first jutsu.

"This, Naruto, is the Forbidden Scroll," the Hokage said as he watched Naruto's eyes bulge with excitement. "I want you to look at this first jutsu here."

Naruto didn't get past the title before he remarked, "Hey, that's _my _jutsu!" Naruto pouted.

The Hokage laughed again before remarking, "They just have the same name. Go ahead, read more."

As Naruto did, his eyes widen with the complexity of the jutsu. He looked over the hand seals, which seemed simple as he committed them to his memory, but he continued to read. The name of the jutsu was misleading, Naruto thought. The Bunshins were made purely from chakra, something that Naruto still couldn't quite figure out how to do. He continued to read more of the scroll, mainly on the uses of the Kage Bunshin. Apparently the Kage Bunshin added extra fighters to the fray to learning whatever jutsu, technique or information in incredible time, to intelligence gathering. A master of this jutsu could also raise an army on a whim to combat even the biggest of villages, if they had the chakra for it, of course.

Once he finished, Naruto said, "That jutsu is pure genius. I would take me years to come up with something like that." The Sandaime just nodded his head with understanding.

"It's a relatively easy jutsu to learn, but the amount of chakra needed to perform it is massive. Most shinobi would kill themselves or severely tax their chakra just to get a couple clones." Naruto nodded his head in understanding. "However, you could easily use this jutsu without tiring. I hope you use it wisely."

Naruto just gave a nod. He wasn't surprised he was caught memorizing the seals. And he would use this jutsu. The Bunshin he created earlier took a lot of chakra and weren't nearly as useful.

"I also wanted to talk to you about Homura," the Hokage said. "He has shown an unhealthy amount of interest in you. I suggest you be wary around him."

"Don't worry about me, Oji-san. I know he's a weird guy, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. If he wants to give me some leeway, I'll take it. But I will _never_ take so much to be in his debt." The Sandaime nodded and excused Naruto, all the while thinking of the peculiar ability he had to actually manipulate shadows.

Iruka was done hearing the regaling tale of how Naruto beat the Hokage and his advisors into his submission and promoting him to a newly made rank. Ayame, the pretty waitress at Ichiraku's, just nodded politely along. Iruka quickly told Naruto to meet him at the training ground 18 tomorrow for his first one-on-one instruction and promptly left. Naruto nodded as Iruka left. Naruto didn't plan on leaving for a long time. Today was a cause to celebrate.

The next day Naruto was thinking over the previous day as he sat at the training ground he was supposed to meet Iruka at. More specifically at his thorough thrashing at the hands of Sasuke. It wouldn't do for someone of Naruto's rank to be beaten by an Academy student. Naruto needed to bump up his physical stature. Not only was Sasuke incredibly fast, but he was also powerful. He was disrupted from his thoughts when Iruka came around, grumbling about loud Inuzukas and lazy Naras.

"Alright," Iruka began, "I'm going to teach you charka control. You must walk up this tree," he said patting the tree he was standing next to before he himself began walking up the tree. "You must channel chakra to the bottom of your feet to stick to the tree. Too much chakra and it'll make you explode off the tree. Too little, and you might as well not even try channeling it to your feet as nothing will happen."

"Why do I got to do this Iruka-sensei?" Naruto whined.

"Well, if you get this down, you waste less chakra. Also, you can learn how to do other things with your chakra." Naruto just sadly nodded as he began half-heartedly. "And if you get this within two days, I'll buy you a bowl of ramen... for a week." This got Naruto moving.

However, Naruto couldn't get any real progress during the first half of the day. Naruto remembered the jutsu the Sandaime showed him yesterday. He tried the jutsu a few times, getting it on his fifth. Five Naruto's began trying to climb the tree as the real one sat down next to a surprised Iruka, who was informed earlier about Naruto's new jutsu from the Sandaime.

Naruto then asked, "how do you make charka do things without manipulating other things?" Iruka was a little dumbfounded by the awkwardly worded question.

"Like, how I just made those clones?" Iruka asked to try and clear up the grabbled question. Naruto thought about it before nodding his head. Iruka thought about that. He had affinity with water, which sadly needed a source to use. However he did know one fire technique that might help Naruto.

"Well I know one technique that could help you," he began. "It's called **Housenka no Jutsu**. Here are the seals," at which point he showed Naruto the correct seals, ending with 'tora.' Iruka then performed the technique, which Naruto recognized as the one Sasuke always used when he was losing in their spars.

Iruka saw Naruto's curled lip and said, "Sorry it's not the type to destroy the world, but it is effective," Iruka said coughing out smoke. Since that jutsu was naturally opposed to his own, it hurt a little to do it. Naruto just shook it off and tried to do it, but nothing happened.

"Alright, this is what you need to do with your chakra," at which point Iruka told Naruto about heating the gathered chakra in your mouth while performing hand seals. This didn't set well with Naruto since one should be able to make the hand seal to heat the chakra, as his studies had suggested. It was too much to do, thinking of hand seals, heating the chakra yourself, and fighting an enemy at the same time.

However, Naruto's question was answered. He now realized he had to _gather_ the chakra at point of release while allowing the hand seals to mold the chakra in the right position. He still didn't like the thought of gathering the chakra himself, but he hadn't found any seal that could pull chakra out of his system. Oh well, something to study for once he had the time.

Naruto tuned out Iruka and thought about the one seal needed to heat the chakra. He figured the 'saru' seal would be sufficient to heat the chakra to a good level, and finished with the 'tora' seal to ignite his chakra. Naruto quickly gathered his chakra and performed the jutsu with his addition, which confused Iruka. Iruka however just nodded his head in a confused way once three fire balls shot out of Naruto's mouth. Naruto gave a cocky smirk as he rubbed his tender throat. He was kick ass to the n-th degree, Naruto thought.

Just before Iruka was about to call it quits for the night, both him and Naruto observed a Naruto clone who was only standing at the base of the tree he was supposed to be climbing. The others were either trying to run up their own tree or trying to sneakily walk up a tree; almost as if they were trying to walk up the tree without its knowing. However the clone just standing at the tree had his hands in the 'o-hitsuji ' symbol, with a face of intense concentration, and blue chakra swirling around him.

He finally made a move to walk up the tree. The clone got three feet up the tree before Naruto realized that his clone had figured out a short cut. He let the clone get a little higher up before dispelling them all. With the sudden influx of knowledge and sensations, he had a terrible headache, but nothing he couldn't recover from in due time. Iruka patted Naruto on the back until Naruto perked up with a devious smile on.

"Wait up Iruka. I need to try something real quick." Naruto didn't need to perform the 'o-hitsuji ' symbol to focus his charka since he knew how the chakra should be dispersed and how it should feel. Naruto quickly made his way up the tree until he was hanging upside down from a branch. He pointed towards Iruka with a foxy grin and yelled, "You owe me a bowl of ramen!"

**AN:** I have intentionally left out the Hokage telling Naruto the truth about Kyuubi. Also, Naruto will meet again with Team Kakashi. So Let me know how the story is going.

Dictionary:

**Housenka no Jutsu**: Phoenix Immortal Fire Technique. C-Rank.

**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu:** Naruto's version is pretty useless compared to canon version. Almost like a regular bunshin with simialr abilities, but just a butt load more chakra to use.

**Jiei**: Independent

You guys can look up the different seals yourself. Best place to go, so far I've found is Naruto is nine. He hasn't failed three times and he will not take on Wave Arc, or any arc that is exactly the same with enemies of different names in Grass country, like everyone else likes to write. He will not meet up with anyone until the Chuunin exams. Peace.


	4. Enter the Konohamaru Corps!

**Chapter 4**

Naruto was impatiently setting next to Iruka in the lotus position. it had been six months since he had successfully completed the tree walking excercise without the use use of hand seals. Iruka now felt that Naruto had been getting a feel of his chakra and built his chakra reserves to a satisfactory level, that he should now start trying to sense chakra signatures. Currently, Naruto had employed twenty Kage Bunshins to run around the forest, repeatedly coming in close and then going back out into the deep forest. Naruto still couldn't sense a single Kage Bunshin... and he had been doing it for _four hours!_

"What the hell does this have to do with being a ninja?" Naruto finally broke and asked (more liked yelled).

"Well," Iruka began, "if this had been a real life mission you would have died about... sixty times now with how close your Kage Bunshin have come."

'Dammit,' thought Naruto. He was just too good at sneaking, he assumed. If his clones could get with the killing strike zone, which was about twenty yards, and he couldn't even _hear them_, he was damn good. Too good for his own good.

"Hey I got an idea," Naruto shouted out ten minutes later, "how 'bout we go taijutsu training!"

"Well, if you want," Iruka said, "but I _know_ Sasuke can do this already. I thought you wanted to be better than him," Iruka baited Naruto, while slowly climbing to his feet. Naruto's grin slowly slipped from his face as he set back down. Iruka had learned a lot from Naruto, and accordingly broke down his young student. It would seem that Naruto would try and complete his task, but Iruka knew he would just swim in his fury over the Sasuke barb for about an hour. Iruka had discovered that form of pushing Naruto only a week in to his training when Naruto wanted to quit training his taijutsu after an hour... until Iruka prodded him with Sasuke jabs. Naruto didn't focus for about an hour, but he tried to do the excercises Iruka showed him. However, after an hour, Naruto focused properly and quit crying about working out. Iruka just smirked with his own cleverness.

True to Iruka's assessment, after an hour of silently fuming, Naruto started to actually focus. Again, true to form, after a couple of hours, Naruto was getting the hang of sensing chakra. Of course, Naruto was still off by twenty meters in any given direction. However, given a couple months, Naruto should be able to detect signatures of mid-chuunins or lower.

As usual, Iruka left shortly there after, leaving Naruto to focus on whatever he felt he needed to work on. Generally, Naruto always had a couple clones climbing trees, and he would always work on taijutsu conditioning or whatever Iruka had showed him that day. That was until Naruto met the Konohamaru Corps. Since then, they came around usually every other day. Iruka didn't mind it, in fact he was a little grateful. The Konohamaru Corps. kept Naruto young, by playing "ninja" and things like that. However, what Iruka knew and what was true were two, slightly different things.

When the Konohamaru Corps. first came around, Naruto did play "ninja" with them... until he couldn't take it anymore. So instead, he took them on as his own "team." They still thought they were playing, but Naruto crafted his excerises so that they were fun, but that the Corps. learned valuable lessons. The first one Naruto taught was how to hide... since square rocks in the real world didn't really cut it.

After meeting them two months ago, after Konohamaru followed him when he heard Naruto 'yelling' at the Hokage (in truth, Naruto was just talking loud), followed Naruto around... for about thirty seconds. Naruto and Konohamaru hit it off almost immediately, which led Konohamaru to inviting Udon and Moegi along to play "ninja."

Their lessons after a month had paid off so far, since Naruto was walking around his training ground, trying to think of something to do, when a normal looking rock exploded with gusto, and an accompanying shout of, "DANGER!" rang out. Once the smoke cleared, the Konohamaru Corps. searched for their leader, and only finding him standing above them, upside down on a tree branch, breathing heavily and clutching his chest, with a little bit of a damp spot on the front of his pants.

Nauto, once he gathered his wits, didn't know how to feel. One, he was proud that his 'students' were able to hide so efficently, but he also was scared by a group of five year olds. Also, if he had gotten the hang of the chakra sensing, he would have known they were there. Oh well, might as well and play it off.

"GREAT job you guys!" Naruto beamed as he landed behind the three kids, ruffling Udon's and Konohamaru's hair.

"Yeah, we really got Boss!" Udon sniffled out.

"I know! We even made him piss himself!" Konohamaru squealed, only to be interuppted by Naruto.

"No you didn't... It's a sweat stain, I swear," Naruto told them while holding up his hands. Konohamaru however, bent down towards it, and gave a quick sniff, before Naruto could hit him on the head for invading his bubble. "What's your malfunction?" Naruto screeched out. No one should get so close to chibi-Naruto.

"Sure stinks like piss," Konohamaru remarked to the other two. Naruto just grumbled for a couple of seconds before he reigned in his wayward students.

"Alright, you guys obviously got concealment down," Naruto began, "now we'll start today by making... traps," he finished with faux-trepidation. The rest of the day worked along those lines. Naruto showed them how to make all kinds of different traps, ranging from funny traps to lethal traps. Towards the end of the day, Naruto left his charges to practicing making their own traps.

After a couple days had passed, and each of his three 'students' got better at making their traps, Naruto made them apply his trap making methods with his hiding methods, which sounded simple enough, but the Konohamaru Corps. soon found out that combining the two were very difficult.

Naruto was about as frustrated as his 'students.' He still wasn't getting better at sensing chakra signatures. He hadn't seen Iruka since he first showed Naruto the method of sensing chakra. On any given day, Naruto had twenty clones roaming the forests while another twenty focused on sensing. The real Naruto had bored of that excercise days ago, and worked mostly on his conditioning.

Naruto was intent on surpassing Sasuke in both conditioning and taijutsu. Actually, Naruto was being taught a new taijutsu form, one unique to Iruka. The _Hayaiken_ was Iruka's personal style. Naruto thought it really wasn't a style, but more of a disicpline. The philosophy was that the fighter must recognize and interpret the slightest movement of their opponent's body, so that they counter attack before their opponent can even strike. It didn't involve moving at incredible speeds or hitting with the force of a runaway elephant, but to simple react to their opponent's aggression. It was easy enough, in theory, but Naruto knew it would be literal years before he truly mastered this special technique. It didn't matter though. Iruka had said his progress was extraordinary. He would be able to handle anyone withing the Genin ranks, maybe even Chunin.

However, while Naruto was pondering things (namely himself), he didn't realize how his next two years would change his life forever.

**AN:** This was hard to write. It wasn't as long as I would have hoped, but I don't want to rush through things that setup the future of the story. The next chapter should deal with a two year time skip, to the point if Naruto didn't graduate early... the graduating class he should have been a part of.

**Dictionary:**

Hayaiken: The Quick fist taijutsu.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: **

_'Ping,'_

_'Pong,'_

_'Ping,'_

_'Pong,'_ came the fast and furious slashing of Naruto and Iruka. After two years of training, this was probably Naruto's favorite training excercise. In fact, there was nothing ninja like about their current activity, even though it was part of Naruto's taijutsu training. How could the fun game of ping pong be a training exercise!?

Iruka had explained to Naruto that part of his taijutsu was to react to his opponents flinches and body movements to react reflexively, and what better way to do that than playing ping pong with an already established chunin ninja. If anyone would have spied the two playing, all they would see was a little white blur going back and forth and a pile of decrepted white balls that reached knee level.

There game was interuppted when a messenger bird landed on Iruka's shoulder. Iruka put his paddle on the table with the ball underneath it, as he pulled the note from the bird. He read it in a few moments, and had, what Naruto thought, was a stumped look on his face.

"What's up Iruka-sensei? I was just getting ready to kick your ass... again!" Came Naruto's yelling boast. It was most likely true as well. For the past half year, Iruka was having trouble keeping up with his protege. Perhaps Iruka needed to start training himself one of these days.

"Hmmm... it says here that your presence is required by the Hokage. He wants to put you on a team just long enough to get this team to the Chunin Exams in a week. Apparently, one of their members has suffered an injury that will stop him from competing in the Chunin Exams, but the other two teammates want to take the exams without him," Iruka said, letting Naruto in on the details concerning him.

"Well, _they_ don't sound like very good teammates if they can't wait another six months for the next one," Naruto replied. Iruka had to silently agree. Iruka was amazed at Naruto's concept at teamwork too. Since they began training, Iruka had always subtlely explained why teamwork was important, and Naruto in turn, training the Konohamaru Corps. had only reitierated that fact.

"It doesn't matter, this is a mandatory mission for you. You must take it on the Hokage's orders," Iruka said with a stern expression. However on the inside, he felt sad, thinking that Naruto might like his potiental teammtes, and Jonin sensei more than him, leaving him to teach only Academy students. Naruto had done a lot for Iruka even if he didn't realize or mean to. For the past couple months, Iruka had seriously contemplated training and taking the Jonin Exams and becoming Naruto's tutor on an official basis.

"Bah... they sound like losers. Probably won't get past the first test. Looks like I'll be back here in a week and a half Iruka sensei!" And Naruto trotted off towards the Hokage tower, not knowing the anguish he put Iruka through. Iruka knew Naruto would be made Chunin through this exam. There was no doubt in his mind, and he wouldn't be able to teach him anymore. He also knew that his teammates were far from 'losers' as Naruto put it. After all, the famous Team Seven of Konoha, led by Sharingan no Kakashi with Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura already had their names whispered amounst the villageres as potientally being the second coming of the Legendary Sannin... if only they could find another member to complete the triangle.

Maybe he and Naruto could take missions together once he passed, Iruka thought as a smile finally tugged at his lips as he picked up the paddles and lit the dilapidated ping pong balls on fire.

* * *

"Oi, Oji-san, what's the big deal?" Naruto asked as he charged in to Sarutobi's office. The brash attitude brought a smile to his lips, as well as Homura's, who ruffled Naruto's blond locks as he walked by, bringing a relunctant smile to Naruto's lips. Naruto would take any kind of attention from anyone.

"I assume you mean about your new, ah, _mission_," the Hokage put it delicately. He knew that if he didn't, Naruto wouldn't accept his new assignment, regardless if he was ordered to or not.

"Your damn right, putting me on a team with a bunch of dickheads. _They_ won't even wait for their teammate to recover so they could take it together," Naruto shouted at the Hokage. The Hokage only raised an eyebrow. He hadn't realized Iruka had parted knowledge onto Naruto about the importance of teamwork. That man, Sarutobi thought, was a true teaching genius.

"Normally, I'd agree with you Naruto-kun, but they have unique circumstances."

"Like what? What could cause someone to leave their teammates behind?"

"Well, their teammate doesn't even want to be a ninja," Sarutobi explained, causing Naruto's steam he built up to leave litle by little. "He was... forced into becoming a shinobi by his parents for the prestige. See, they're wealthy merchants who thought that the newly added prestige of their son becoming a shinobi would add to their wealth. They gave... a generous donation to the Fire Lord and to the Konoha shinobi Corps. to allow him to become a ninja."

This however, was the wrong explanation. Naruto's lost steam came back at full force as he pointed a finger at the Hokage. "YOU ACCEPTED A BRIBE!" Naruto yelled shaking in fury.

"Yes, I did. And I refuse to apologise," said the Hokage, giving Naruto a steely gaze, surpring the kid. Naruto didn't expect that, and the Hokage thought Naruto was becoming a little loose with his mouth. "I knew the child wouldn't rise above genin and would be regulated to D rank tasks. There was no risks involved for him, or another shinobi. I acknowledge that it cheapens Konoha shinobi, but our enemies will underestimate us if they hear about that, and at the moment, Konoha has never had a stronger force than what it does now."

Naruto now knodded his head in seeming understanding, but still was trying to wrap his head around the concept.

"Anyway," the Hokage began,"this is a C-rank mission, it is done once the Chunin Exam finals begin or they fail. Your perimeters are that you are to ensure to the best of your ability that the team gets the best shot at becoming chunins that you can provide."

"Fine, but Oji-san, I'm considering this a favor-"

"Then we're even," the Hokage cut off. At seeing Naruto's questioning gaze, "Remember, I allowed the meeting to voice your arguments for becoming a Jiei Genin. Your team will meet you tomorrow at training field seven, for an evaluation of your skills and so you can see what your teammates are capable of. Meet them at noon... not a moment later."

Naruto slumped out of the office with a quivering lip. He couldn't even get a favor out of the Hokage! However, his smile brightened as he had an awesome idea for a little prank... and the the Konohamaru Corps. was needed!

**AN:** Short I know, but the action is about to pick up. Hopefully, I'm at the point where it'll all just start rolling out now, faster and longer. So, good day to you all!


	6. Teams Meet

**Chapter 5: Teams Meet**

Four irate children sat along the bench to the designated training grounds that Naruto was supposed to meet Team Seven. The problem was... everyone from Team Seven was _four hours late!_ Konohamaru was grabbing his crotch because for the past three hours he had to go to the bathroom, but was afraid to leave in case the errant Team Seven showed up. Moegi was ripping grass out of the ground at a furious pace as it was the only thing that she could find to take her fury out on. Udon... well Udon fell asleep after ten minutes of waiting, so he wasn't missing much.

After another fifteen minutes, Team Naruto finally saw four silouhettes coming up from a hill. One was definitely taller than the others and seemed to be reading a book as he walked. A shorter figure walking next to the tall figure seemed to walk with a type swagger that one could only acheive with a lot of confidence. They other figure next to the tall figure was that of a definite girl, or a very, _very_ effeminate girl. The final figure hobbled next to the girl with a crutch under his arm.

Once they finally approached, and Naruto could make out the details of the team approaching him. the tall figure had spiky gray hair, the kid with the swagger was the prig Uchiha, and the girl was the beauitful Sakura. Naruto didn't recognize the boy next to Sakura, only that he would occassionally moan out, "Oh Haku-chan!" over and over. Finally, Sakura had enough and hit him on the head.

"Yousei, how many times do we have to tell you that Haku was a _boy_!" Sakura asked exasperated. Their jonin sensei sweat dropped at the impression his student had imparted on his potiental replacement.

"Oh Haku-chan, when shall we meet again?" The surprisingly deep voiced boy asked. It was surprising because his features we surprising effeminate.

They all ignored him as Sakura was suddenly glomped by Naruto, who forgot about the tardiness of his potiental teammates. "Sakura-chan, you even more pretty than I had imagined," Naruto said as he began kissing her hand. Sakura promptly inserted her fist on top of his head, driving Naruto into the dirt.

"That's boss alright," Konohamaru remarked, "he has a... _certain_ way with the ladies." Indeed, this wasn't the first time Konohamaru had witnessed 'his boss' being rebuffed from his advances on a pretty face. Sometimes the ladies Naruto had assault- I mean wooed were over thirty.

"Ah-hem," came the clearing of the spiky haired jonin's voice, "but I believe youasked us here for a reason," the cycloptic jonin stated. The members of Team Seven looked at where Sakura had planted Naruto, only not to find him there. Instead, Naruto was back to standing with his team, nodding his head in a sage like way.

"Indeed I did." Naruto began. "I am on a B ranked mission to join your team in their _hopes_ of becoming chunin," Naruto obviously didn't think much of chunin. Why would he need to be a chunin, he was going to be _Hokage_.

"But I have added stipulations of me joining your, to see if your worthy of me," here Naruto heard a sniff, not surprisingly from the Uchiha.

"Like we would need you," Sasuke began, "didn't I mop the floor with you the last time we met?" He asked with a smirk.

"DON'T YOU OWE ME BIG FOR THOSE PRETTY LITTLE EYES OF YOURS!" Naruto asked (yelled) back, providing Sasuke's teammates with the knowledge of how he acheived the Sharingan at such a young age. Indeed, because of Naruto, Sasuke's eyes were almost fully matured, two tomoe in one eye, three in the other.

_What an intense fight that must have been to bring out the Sharingan_ Kakashi mused listening to the two kids verbally assault each other. "Um... what are your conditions?" Kakashi asked, breaking up the fight, at least temporarily.

Naruto went back into his 'sage mode' as he began detailing his idea. "First, I have in this forest put a scroll for a practice retrival mission. The team who gets the scroll first, wins." Nods of understanding went around the group.

"The winner gets special stipulations. If you guys win, you get me... doing whatever you need me to do to win the Chunin Exams."

"Isn't that what the Hokage's mission to you was anyway?" Kakashi asked.

"Nope, Jiji just asked me to be on your team, he never said I couldn't make your guys' lives hell," Naruto quipped backed.

Kakashi just raised an eyebrow. "Fair enough... what do you get if you win?"

"Two things," Naruto said before being interrupted by Sakura.

"Why do you get two things, baka?"

"Uhm, I'm doing this with Academy Students, and we don't have a Jonin on our team," Naruto said, a little disheartened Sakura couldn't recognize that. But, they didn't didn't need to know that Naruto was easily chunin level, and Konohamaru, Udon, and Moegi were easily genin level.

"If we win," Naruto began, "I get to be team leader." Sasuke snarled and Sakura huffed. They didn't like the fact that some kid who didn't even have a team or even _knew_ them would lead them. "Secondly," Naruto began with a blush and a goofy smile, "Sakura has to go on a date with me."

Sakura's tirade was cut short by a 'Deal,' coming from Kakashi. "G-good," Naruto stuttered. "One more rule: I won't engage you guys if he," here Naruto gestured at Kakashi, "if he doesn't engage them," here Naruto gestured at his team.

"Okay, I don't really care about the outcome," Kakashi said as he turned another page in his book. 

* * *

"Hell yeah," Naruto shouted out as his team emerge virutally unscathed and Team Seven limped out of the forest. Sasuke had green itching powder covering his face, due to one of Konohamaru's specialty traps. Konohamaru was, at this level, an expert trap maker, easily chunin level, and Sasuke got caught in a triple layered trap. Sakura was sporting a giant handprint on her face due to Moegi, who surprised Sakura in Moegi's patented "Kawaii Binta." The sad thing was that Team Seven, to this point, never realized Team Naruto had spent the whole night in the forest, canvasing the place in different traps and ambush points, then hiding the scroll in a place that Team Seven would never find- correct that, catch: a moving Naruto **Kage Bunshin**.

"From now on," Naruto said, pointing at Sakura and Sasuke, "you guys have to call me Naruto-taichou or... NARUTO-SAMA, hell yeah!" Naruto said, pumping his fist... "except for you Sakura-chan" at which point he got promply planted in the ground, courtesy of Sakura's fist.

Jutsus:

Kawaii Binta: Cute Slap to the Face

(From now on, only serious jutsu will be in bold, silly jutsu will be normal)

**AN: **Don't worry, I'm still here. School is a son of a gun. On top of that, I had my back pack stolen out of my car with five hundred dollars worth of books in it. What a bitch move... who likes to mess with peoples lives like that, like they're fuggin god or something I don;t know.

Anyways, I got two questions: First Itachi said he and Kisame could fight Jiraiya to a draw, or some equivalent. Does that mean Itachi could take Pain (Pein, whichever), or did he overestimate their strength (Jiraiya is holding his own against _three _Pein's) or is Jiraiya like an S-class kage level ninja?

Secondly, if Pein has the 'most revered' doujutsu, why is he taking orders from Madara?


	7. Chunin Exams!

**Chapter 6: Chunin Exams!**

The week before the Chunin Exams passed by faster than what Naruto had hoped. He was excited to see how he compared to other Genins, but afraid his 'awesomeness' would shine through and that he would get promoted to Chunin. How would he be remembered as a Hokage if he didn't go straight from Genin to Hokage!? All the other Hokages had something they were remembered by, Naruto knew. He might not be a History scholar, but he was obsessed with all things Hokage. For instance, not only was the Shodaime remembered for founding Konohagakure, but also his unique uses of Mokuton jutsus. That was _two _things he was remembered for! Naruto swore he would be remembered for at least _three_ things: being a hand seal master, going straight from Genin to Hokage, and... something else. He didn't know what, but by God it was going to be awesome!

Naruto was currently walking his two temporary teammates to the first stage of the Chunin Exams. They always looked confused when he mentioned these 'stages' but Naruto didn't pay them any mind. If they never showed the initiative to learn about these exams, then he wasn't going to coddle them. Naruto wasn't getting weird looks from Sasuke and Sakura for that reason. No, Sakura had told Sasuke about their 'date,' at which whenever Sakura saw Naruto she couldn't help but chuckle at him. Not giggle in an excited girly way, but chuckle, guffaw at Naruto. Well, not _at_ him, more like behind his back. She didn't try to be mean about it, but it was just so _funny_!

(Flashback: Yeah, that just happened)

Sakura was quite surprised with Naruto's date so far. She had expected him to take her to his favorite ramen place, and to slurp up noodles at an alarming rate and make her want to puke. Instead, he took her to a nice place in one of Konoha's various parks where they were able to watch the sunset play across a slow moving river yards away and have a picnic (catered by Ichiraku's). Naruto chatted about the things he knew: himself and ramen, but didn't come off in an arrogant way. Sakura noticed how he was able to laugh at himself as much as anyone else and genuinely seemed to enjoy her company. Sakura in turn told her about her teammates. Sasuke was a lone wolf, never training with her or the other guy, but you could count on him in a mission to watch your back. She told him about their mission to Nami no Kuni, where they encountered Zabuza and Haku (oh how Naruto wished he could have fought in that battle). An how her third teammate got a crush on the androgynous Haku (though he definitely was a boy). Sakura actually _giggled_ when Naruto started to dry heave when she mentioned that tidbit.

However, when the night started to wind down, Naruto made his mistake. "So you ready to make a baby!?" WHAM! Sakura let her fist do the talking as she pummeled the scrappy blond. Naruto pulled himself out of his hole and asked, "What's so bad about making babies?" He pouted towards Sakura. Sakura had a sinking, suspicious feeling about where this might lead.

"Naruto, what do you know about 'making babies?'" she inquired.

Naruto instantly perked up and responded, "Oh, the lady at the orphanage told me. You see, a boy and a girl go to the play ground, find some clay, shape it into a baby... and the most important part is that the boy and girl... urm _pee _on the baby. Then the daddy eats the baby and when he poops it out, BAM! you got yourself a kid," He finished with a big foxy grin as Sakura had to stuff her fist in her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Her ribs and stomach hurt already from the potential guffaws waiting to be released as tears poured from her eyes. She dragged Naruto to her house so that she could get her mom to give Naruto the 'Birds and the Bees' talk.

* * *

Naruto stared with a pale, sweaty face as he looked at horror upon the bigger version of Sakura in an apron. If it were any other time, Naruto would have 'pervved out,' but that time was dead and gone. The Haruno matron was weary at first about the 'demon' asking to make babies with her little girl... until she heard his version of things. She also had to stuff a fist in her mouth to keeping from guffawing at the young teen. After a few minutes she took pity upon the boy and explained to him how babies are really made, which left Naruto in his uncharacteristically quiet mood.

After a few seconds of silence which felt like an eternity to Naruto, he finally exploded. "YOU'RE ONE SICK PUPPY, YA KNOW THAT? YOU ARE DEMENTED AND HAVE SCARRED ME FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE! I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU, SICKO! YOU GOT A SICK AND TWISTED WORLD PERSPECTIVE GOODBYE!"

(Flashback End!)

Naruto had avoided Sakura like the plague that week. Sakura had told Sasuke about how Naruto thought babies were made, then burst into uncontrollable giggles afterwards. Sasuke didn't see the humor. 'Finally, I know how to revive my clan...' thought the brooding avenger. No one had ever given him the proper talk either.

The group of three eventually arrived at the exam center. Naruto, as the leader of the group, had to drag Sasuke away from a pissing contest with a group of older genin. After Naruto explained the benefits of leaving the genjutsu up, Sasuke reluctantly relented his pursuit. Team Seven met with Kakashi as he gave both Sakura and Sasuke some words of encouragement (and told Naruto not to piss off their first examiner left).

Team Seven met other Chunin hopefuls on the other side of the door, with included the rookie group of genins from Sasuke and Sakura's class. While those two met up with their former classmates, Naruto was making the rounds of hitting on both Hinata and Ino, until Sakura got wise to him and bopped him on the head a dragged him off. Naruto regained consciousness about the time an older Konoha Genin was getting his glasses shattered by some Oto-nin. Shortly after that, a giant of a man walked in, barking orders at the genins. Naruto just grumbled about 'giants with authority complexes,' when the man chucked a kunai at the back of Naruto's head, only for the blunt end to connect (it was no accident).

After the 'Ibiki" fellow explained the rules, Naruto got a foxy grin as he crossed his arms behind his head and relaxed. Technically, he already had the ten points. If he never answered a question, how could he get it wrong? He sadly never realized a blank answer was the equivalent to a wrong answer.

The tenth question had Sakura quaking in her sandals. She almost gave up until she heard Naruto chuckle. His chuckle became a full blown laugh. 'I plan on going straight to Genin to Hokage, you ugly old fool! Go ahead, fail me. When a war breaks out, do you think rank is gonna mean shit? HA! Choke on that one, asshole!'

Needless to say, Ibiki was more than a little miffed. Even more so as more and more Genin started to smirk and cross their arms over their chests. Sakura just grinned at Naruto nodding his head in a self-satisfied manner until he jumped in his seat when a scantily clad Kunoichi land through the newly broken window.

* * *

Naruto was looking forward to the next test. He made sure to get to Training Ground Forty-four bright and early in hopes to meet his next examiner. Sadly, she didn't show up until the rest of the Genin did. That however, did not deter Naruto.

"What's up... Babe?" Naruto purred as he rolled up next to Anko Mitarashi. Anko just smirked at the kids balls-ie move.

"Nothing, gorgeous," she purred as Naruto got a (would be) seducer's smirk on his face. He, however, didn't notice that his was air borne the next second as Anko had grabbed him by his golden lockes and chucked him towards the nearest tree. She followed that up with a couple of sharpened dango sticks which lodge themselves millimeters from 'chibi-Naruto' and the twins.

"Any more wise guys?" the deadly Kunoichi asked, only to get several shinobi's to shake their heads so hard that some got whiplash and others received cracked vertebrae. Sadly, their teams had to leave as Anko explained the deadly rules to the second stage of the Chunin Exams...

**Omake** (Because I can)

Sasuke stared at his creations. Three clay babies were nestled in the sand. Each were about six inches long and slightly... ugly looking. He hoped his... kids didn't end up like that. He finally saw a suitable candidate, a kunoichi a year younger than him who was fairly bright.

"You," he rasped out in the way only Sasuke could. "Come make my babies," at which said girl squealed in delight as she rushed over to the tragic hero.

She went for a kiss,but Sasuke pushed her away. "What are you doing? Pee on those over there," Sasuke said, at which point he got a mopey look, followed by, for lack of other words, questioning gaze.

"Well, do mind giving me some privacy," the aspiring Kunoichi asked. Sasuke nodded and left not before leaving one bit advice.

"Make sure you drip dry. I don't know how much pee is needed, but I want it all on those clay babies."

Sasuke made his way back five minutes later to see the Academy student pulling her pants up. She blushed at her indecency, but Sasuke only shooed her away. It was, after all, time to add his own ingredient.

Sasuke finished the deed, and as he held up the soaking, smelling clay baby and said, "Why should I just get my revenge alone when a fully formed Uchiha clan can back me," He smirked as he choked the three vile concoctions down.

Team Seven never knew why Sasuke was in the hospital for three days afterwards his 'conception' of the Uchiha clan commenced.

**AN:** FYI, I'm not a basher. You will not get illogical hate from me... my hate is all logical. As a matter of fact, anyone who doesn't like Sakura should probably stop reading now. She is strong already in my fic. However, if you want to try to give it a chance, I think you'll enjoy her new attitude and abilities. Also the next chapter will contain Naruto's spiffy new moves and such. If you thought Naruto cussed too much or whatever, suck off. My story. Also, I don't want to portray Naruto as a pervert, maybe more like a womanizer (Jiraiya writes porn, Naruto would write a book on pick up lines if that analogy works for ya). Peace.


	8. Forest of Death!

**Disclaimer:** You know what I own

**Chapter 8:** Forest of Death!

As soon as the second part of the exam started, Sakura noticed a big difference in Naruto. He was no longer goofy and carefree, but took on the persona of a battle hardened tactician. He barked out orders that she unconsciously responded to immediately. Before, when she looked upon Naruto, she saw a goofy kid, decked out in the most ridiculous shinobi attire who liked to play 'ninja' with kids years younger than himself. Now, he was something altogether different. She noticed how Sasuke seemed to struggle accepting Naruto's barking commands. Surprisingly, he still followed through with his assignments.

After a full out run for over an hour left Sakura thoroughly winded. Sasuke was gasping in lungfuls of air as well as Naruto only wiped a drop of sweat from his brow. Naruto had decided to let them have a five minute rest before they continued. Their rest was interrupted when Sasuke spoke. "Hey Dobe, what's th-" he was cut off abruptly.

"Mind your manners, boy," Naruto growled out as he had pinned Sasuke to a tree with a hand strangling Sasuke's throat. "Respect your betters. I earned the leader spot on this team and you will respect it, and me!" Naruto finished by throwing Sasuke over his shoulder, who the landed in a heap.

"Naruto-senpai, just what is the plan?" Sakura decided to ask, making sure to use the correct honorific. However, she too was curious as to their plan of attack in this exam.

"You don't have to worry about calling me senpai, Sakura," Naruto said with a benign smirk, "only that idiot," here he gestured at Sasuke rubbing a tender neck, "he needs to learn to respect his betters. That king of insubordination could get him killed from a Jonin or ANBU team leader, no questions asked." The last part was said while Naruto looked directly at Sasuke.

"Anyways, our plan of attack is simple," Naruto started, "we get to the tower as fast as possible, then ambush or attack any team that comes our way." Sakura paled at that. There were well over one hundred people in this portion of the exam. Sasuke smirked, he knew that he would have a chance to test his power, or more likely his endurance. After all, he would need both to fight and kill Itachi.

"Don't worry," Naruto reassured Sakura, "we'll only fight the teams that had to fight other teams, so they'll already be tired. Plus, this isn't the Forest of Death for nothing, it'll weed out the cannon fodder. Besides, I got a trump card," Naruto said as he form a cross seal and shouted, 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!' and a mass of Naruto's went leaping through the Forest.

"What was that for... senpai?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto smirked as he replied, "They'll find as many teams as they can, defeat them and burn their scrolls."

"What about other Konoha genin's? And why burn the scrolls, what if we need them?" Sakura asked.

"What about them," Naruto callously replied. "The less teams there are, the better the chance of you two being promoted to Chunin, besides, I'm not going to kill them, just rough 'em up a bit. There is another Chunin exam in another six months."

"What about the scrolls though… senpai?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto's smirked widened, "The first one my clone's come across that doesn't look like ours will bring back to us. The rest of the scrolls just means that even if teams are able to get past us, not as many that could have will be able to." Sasuke nodded in understanding. Kinda cruel, but like Naruto said, another one will come up in the next six months.

After they cut the chit chat, they continued on. Naruto would get occasional bursts of information in his head of particularly strong opponents who had defeated clones of Naruto. Only four really stood out, the rest of Sasuke's and Sakura's rookie class and a team from Sunagakure. Team Eight was definitely impressive. Hinata's Byakugan picked out his clone effortlessly, but even if that had failed, Kiba's nose or Shino's bugs would have given him away. They were surprised that the clone was there. They assumed that his team had been devastated and that he was seeking refuge until he attacked. Once they started to take him seriously, they made quick work of the Naruto clone. Naruto gave a happy smirk when he noticed their confused gazes as he 'poofed' into nothing.

Team Ten was a different story altogether. Naruto severely doubted they would make it to the finals, let alone out there alive. Ino had no need to train and was belly-aching loudly about nature. Chouji just munched on a bag a chips as Shikamaru stared up at the clouds. The Naruto clone went full out against them, hoping to put them out of their misery quickly, but when the clone was about to deliver the 'killing' blow (knock-out punch), he tripped on a root and land on an out stretched, quivering fearfully fist belonging to Chouji. Naruto didn't know what was more pitiful, their team or the way his clone got dispelled.

The team from Suna… Naruto had no idea what happened. All he 'remembered' was landing in a clearing in front of them… then darkness. It worried him and he realized that they were definitely dangerous.

It didn't matter at the moment. It was approaching sunset and the makeshift Team Seven was about fifteen minutes away. Naruto was about to tell them this until a strong gust of wind, an abnormal gust, swept passed his team. Sasuke and Sakura were able to just jump to the side avoiding the blast, but Naruto wasn't so lucky. He was dead center in the gail, and just stayed in the clearing by applying chakra to his feet and sticking to the ground. He had various cuts all over his body, suggesting that the wind was indeed a ninjutsu. After the wind cleared, a female Kusa-nin emerged from the shadows, chuckling.

"Kukuku," she giggled as she emerged with a serpentine grace. "Quite the powerful bunch you are."

Sasuke and Sakura came from their respective bushes and flanked Naruto on each side. They watched in abject horror as their opponent poked themselves in the eye and focused such a raw amount of killer intent at them that it froze them in fear like a genjutsu. However, just as quickly as the jutsu was applied, Team Seven shook off the paralysis. Sasuke activated his Sharingan and Sakura gave a burst of chakra while shouting "Kai!" Naruto also dispelled the affects of the killing intent and upon raising his eyes, the Kusa-nin raised an eyebrow. 'Interesting, it seems the Kyuubi vessel survived the village's hate,' he/she thought.

"Interesting… doujutsu you have boy," she purred out, "what does it do?" Sasuke thought she was talking to him before realizing her eyes were on Naruto.

"That's my little secret," Naruto smirked at her, then seemingly addressing his team, "I'll tell you thing, it allows me to focus Killing Intent on to a victim, but in this case, it's useless."

"W-why?" Sakura choked out. She was surprised at the ferociousness of the Kusa-nin's Killing Intent, but also that Naruto seemingly had a doujutsu.

"Because," Naruto began, "there is no way I can match hers." The other two members of Team Seven raised their eyebrows. If he couldn't even match that with concentrated KI, they this person was way out of their league.

Before Team Seven could make plan for an escape, the Kusa-nin was already in their perimeter. She quickly kicked Sakura, who flew into a nearby tree, getting knocked dizzy. Naruto and Sasuke quickly regrouped and devised a make shift plan. "Me close, You far," Naruto said with poor grammar as Sasuke nodded as he got the gist of Naruto's plan. Naruto quickly engaged the Kusa-nin with his Hayaiken taijutsu style as Sasuke began to expertly pepper the Kusa-nin with fireballs, kunai, and shurikan.

Despite the theoretical greatness of the Hayaiken, Naruto couldn't land a punch, kick, or head butt; and could only dodge a third of the attacks the Kusa-nin threw at him. Sasuke was having a difficult time as well. His long range combat was, if anything, high Chunin caliber, having trained a significant portion of his life mastering various techniques he watched Itachi perform when he was little. However, the Kusa-nin expertly bent around his attacks or maneuvered Naruto in front of his onslaught at the last second.

Five minutes into the fight, Sasuke had to abandon his long range assault. It was at the point now that if he didn't start to conserve his weapons and chakra, he would have none if they survived this fight. Instead, Sasuke began to engage the Kusa-nin in taijutsu as well. It was a risky move, as only well established teammates would be able to coordinate their moves to maximize the attack. Instead of coordinating, Naruto fell back a little to look for an opening as Sasuke engaged in his own taijutsu. When it looked like Sasuke was start to fatigue, Naruto jumped back into the fray and Sasuke fell back. They did this a couple times, enough so that with his sharingan, Sasuke could interpret Naruto's taijutsu well enough to stay out of his way and actually press their double team.

Many people accused the Uchiha as being jutsu thieves. That term was popularized by the famous 'Copy-Nin' Kakashi, but in all actuality, most Uchiha's when they were alive never stole more than fifty. But the ability to 'steal' techniques vilified the Uchiha's in all but Konoha, and they weren't much better off there. Sasuke remembered his father told him that 'stealing' jutsus wasn't the important part of the Sharingan. The Sharingan's true purpose was understanding. The best ability, to Sasuke's father, was perception. Instead of 'copying' a jutsu, one could understand the way it work. Instead of slowing one perception to dodge attacks, one was given extra time to formulate a plan. Sasuke started to believe this was true in because of this fight as they eventually started to inflict damage on the Kusa-nin until it 'slurped' and dissolved into mud.

"Kukuku," a familiar voice rang out, "Impressive, you actually destroyed my mud clone." Naruto and Sasuke both looked bewildered when the nin emerged from a tree… and a little dejected that their battle was for nothing.

Sasuke never noticed as another tomoe appeared in his left eye, equaling each eye to two apiece. The Kusa-nin did, and seemed to salivate. He was however distracted by an impressive killer intent. Naruto was covered in a 'red' chakra and grew animalistic features.

"This is another part of my Kekkai Genkai," Naruto smirked at the Kusa-nin, who merely raised an eyebrow.

'He's the demon vessel… and doesn't even know it! How cute that he thinks he has a Kekkai Genkai,' the Kusa-nin thought. He hid his right hand behind his back, preparing his Gogoyo seal. As expected, with Naruto's increased animalistic urges, he jumped back into the fight before coming up with a plan with Sasuke. That was Naruto's mistake as the Kusa-nin's tongue snaked out and held Naruto in place as the Gogoyo seal was applied. "Sweet dreams, Naruto-kun," he purred out as he flung Naruto into a tree and slid down to the base.

Sasuke knew he didn't have a chance. He couldn't run, couldn't fight, couldn't protect his teammates. Resigned, he gritted his teeth and launched himself at the Kusa-nin. To his credit, he lasted five seconds longer than Naruto as the freaky nin wrapped itself around Sasuke, tripping up his foot work. The freaky shinobi gave Sasuke a little 'love' bite on the neck, which caused him to promptly to pass out. The Kusa-nin had to quickly dodge a swarm of kunai expertly thrown by an enraged Sakura who had come to moments before.

"What did you do to Sasuke, you sick freak!?" Sakura shrieked at the nin.

The nin finally chuckled once again as he had been doing since running into the group, except this time it was deeper. Sakura was repulsed to watch as the nin pulled his 'face' off, revealing a pale man with long black hair an yellow slitted eyes. "I marked Sasuke-kun. He is property of Orochimaru now. He is mine!" He purred to Sakura.

"W-what are you talking about?" Sakura asked as she started to stumble backwards.

"When he awakens, and wants more power, he will come to me. Tell him that I will be waiting," and with that, Orochimaru dissolved, once again, into mud.

Sakura had fortified her camp, with each of her teammates resting as comfortably as they could be. She had layered traps all around her camp, which would hopefully buy her time for the two boys to wake up.

'Snap' she heard a twig break and was instantly on alert. Next, one of her wires she rigged from outside to only alert her someone was coming. Sakura rushed outside to be greeted by three genin standing on the other side of the clearing. Before Sakura had a chance to react, the three genin opposite took point, and closed in on her battering her into a heap.

"Such pretty hair you have," the kunoichi of the team said as she wrenched Sakura up by her pink locks.

"W-wow," Sakura gasped out through pain as the other two sauntered up to her with identical smirks (or so she assumed, one had bandages wrapped around his face). "You guys are really good." This only boosted the ego of all three. "Compared to you guys I'm, I'm," Sakura stuttered out before letting her fearful face turn into an evil smirk, "_fucking awesome_." Then all hell broke loose.

**AN**: This was in the worst way, a big bitch to get out. If it seemed rushed at the end, it was, didn't want it to crap out on me, again. Beginning is going to be fairly familiar, but I'm looking forward to the future of this story, I already have a sequel planned, but all in good time.


	9. The Cherry Blossom Blossoms!

**Disclaimer**: I just own most jutsu in this chapter.

**Chapter 8: The Cherry Blossom, Blossoms**

"W-wow," Sakura gasped out through pain as the other two sauntered up to her with identical smirks (or so she assumed, one had bandages wrapped around his face). "You guys are really good." This only boosted the ego of all three. "Compared to you guys I'm, I'm," Sakura stuttered out before letting her fearful face turn into an evil smirk, "fucking awesome." Then all hell broke loose.

The Oto kunoichi, who had a hold of Sakura's luscious pink locks suddenly screamed out as Sakura's hair transformed into hundreds of razor sharp needles. She had to wrench her hand out of Sakura's hair, which surprisingly to her, still had Sakura's needle hair lodged in them.

"**Ninpo: Harinezumi no Jutsu,"** Sakura purred out as the Oto kunoichi tried to pull and shake the pink needles out of her hand, result in her pulling out copious amounts of skin and blood. Sakura spun up into a standing position while sweeping the Oto kunoichi, knocking her out of the fight for the time being.

Sakura then ran her hands through her hair, pulling out a handful of her razor sharp strands. "My hair is so nice for my original jutsus… bitch!" and kicked the other kunoichi in the gut before turning back to the other two Oto genin.

Sakura rushed towards the other two, and throwing each handful of her 'senbons' at them, only for the one with wrappings around his face to faze away from the onslaught and the other to blow the senbons out of the way with air holes from his hand.

"That the best you got?" the one with spiky hair and air holes asked sardonically.

"Far from it," Sakura smirked back before running at a tree and using it to launch herself into the air. **"Ninpo: Shuurin no Sakura no Jutsu!"** Sakura screamed out as she swung her head around, raining her needle hair down on the Oto genin. Again he blew away her attack with his hands.

"Fool, don't you learn?" he asked as he rubbed his wrists, trying to intimidate Sakura.

"Just trying to gage your abilities, idiot," Sakura quipped back as she ran another hand through her hair, pulling out three more needle like strands. However, this time, she rammed them into the ground. The Oto nin stared perplexed for a few seconds before three, three inch five feet long pikes erupted from the ground in front of him, trying to impale him, but he jumped out of the way a second early. **"Ninpo: Saizensen no Jutsu!"** Sakura said as she released her attack, watching as her former hair deteriorated without the chakra she was feeding it.

That jutsu sapped most of her chakra, sadly. While Sakura had improved herself after the mission to Nami no Kuni, she still had not built up a lot of chakra. Her _Saizensen no Jutsu_ was supposed to be her finisher, because of the lethality and the chakra it ate up to send it through the ground and enlarge. Sakura tried to not let her chakra depletion show, and it apparently worked by looking at the panic stricken Oto nin.

"I guess I'll just have to pull out my new ninjutsu," Sakura said as she went through six hand seals. **"Ninpo: Kijo no Jutsu!"** Sakura yelled. Before the unfortunate Oto nin's eyes, Sakura shifted into a monster. She had one horn in the center of her forehead as her skin turned green. Her eyes bled into a dark blue that encompassed her whole eye as she grew another five feet. Her muscles bulged and her fingers turned into talon like appendages. Her silky hair turned rough and course and she let out a monstrous roar that actually caused the Oto nin to faint.

Sadly for him, it was only genjutsu. Sakura had figured that if she announced an obvious genjutsu as ninjutsu, the opponent would take her word for it. She was right in this case, but sadly it sapped most of her chakra and she forgot about her last opponent, which saw that moment as his opening.

The mummified Oto genin threw a wild hay maker at Sakura, which missed even though he attacked from the back. However, Sakura quickly realized he intended to miss. Her vision swam as he balance gave way and heaved on the battle field.

"Silly girl," the Oto genin spoke. "One should always mind their surroundings and opponents," he began before a bellowing voice screamed **"Konoha Senpu!"**

Sakura was unable to see her savior, but recognized the voice as her fellow Konoha genin, Rock Lee. What she didn't see was Lee giving the Oto genin a kick to the bottom of his jaw, launching him into the air.

Lee followed closely behind as his voice rang out through the clearing **"Omote Renge!"** Lee's bandages wrapped around the Oto genin as gravity took effect and they both spun towards the ground.

The impact was massive. A twenty foot crater emerged from ground zero and only a dizzy and slightly injured Lee emerged from the rubble.

"Don't worry Sakura-chan," Lee said as he attempted to help Sakura up, "the threat has been eliminated." However they both looked up when they felt sinister chakra.

Standing before them was Sasuke, covered in a purple-black chakra. Sakura had finally recovered enough of her vision to be repulsed by the sight before her. Sasuke was covered in purplish-black flame markings all over his skin as he shared a deadly stare with both Sakura and Lee.

"Did you two do this?" He asked in a deep, almost evil rasp. The widening of both Sakura and Lee's eyes were all the indication he needed to faze behind both of them and sinisterly whisper, "_Fight me!_"

"Not today bright eyes," a chipper voice rang out through the clearing. Behind Sasuke was Naruto, not looking any worse for wear. His clothes were obviously dirty and ripped, but his face held a familiar foxy smile that both Sakura and Lee could both hear. Naruto reached a hand out to the surprised Sasuke as he pinched a nerve along Sasuke's collarbone, knocking him out.

Sasuke had awoken a couple hours later, not remembering that he had challenged a fellow Konoha shinobi and his teammate to a fight. Naruto tried to take command back of his team, but the funky thing the androgynous shinobi put on him had been messing with him. Naruto had flashes of stomach cramps, nausea, and couldn't control his mood; plus his chakra control, what he worked so hard for, had completely gone to crap. After two hours of his whining, Sakura made a comment that shut Naruto up for the time being (she said it sounded like Naruto was on his first period).

Luckily for Team Seven, they ran into another helpful Konoha shinobi, the goofy kid a few years older than them who had the nin-info cards. Naruto was glad to find out that he was an accomplished medic-nin and had him look at his stomach. After a few seconds of 'humming,' Kabuto, the medic-nin's name, said that the seal messed with his charka coils in his 'hara' region and that, be consequence, slightly rearranged some organs. It wasn't life threatening, but he said to Naruto that it would either take his body to get used to or to have the seals removed.

It had also seemed that Naruto's clones had done their job. The group of four didn't meet anyone on their way to the tower in the center of the forest, and when they got in, only four teams were there; Team Eight with Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino; the Suna team with the creepy red head; Kabuto's team; finally, a Konoha Team from the year before that had another Hyuuga and a goofy guy in a green leotard; and finally Team Seven, with one day to go.

Naruto was counting down the minutes until the second part of the Chunin exams had finished. He looked all over the tower for someone who knew about seals, but either no one knew anything about them, or they said that they weren't allowed to help any genin until it was decided if there would be a preliminary round to the third part of the exam, whatever that meant.

As Naruto hobbled around, clutching his aching stomach, he never noticed that he walked by the entrance to the Tower from the forest. His only warning he was in danger was a loud shout of "BAKA!" before Yamanaka Ino's fist sent Naruto careening through the air.

"Love you too, Ino," Naruto winced as he rubbed his sore jaw.

"What the hell did you have to destroy all of the scrolls for jackass!?" She yelled back after his response. Had Ino voiced that question to her teammate, Nara Shikamaru, she would have found her answer, maybe. Shikamaru was smart enough to know what was bothering Ino (it bothered him too because she drug him all through the forest looking for a scroll they needed).

"He did it because he could, he should, and it was tactically the best move," Shikamaru droned out, trying to hide his calculating gaze from Naruto, who was too busy clutching his stomach in pain.

"What the hell are you talking about, lazy ass!?" Ino again shrieked out. Naruto was able to look up at that. Ino's voice was so loud and painful, it was able to distract Naruto enough from his abdominal discomfort so that he could look at her('She should make use of that voice of hers and make it a jutsu,' Naruto pondered, before thinking, 'that's not such a bad idea…'). Her once pristine hair was disheveled, with twigs and leaves in it. Her beautiful, designer shinobi clothes were ripped and torn, and above all else, she was dirty.

"Since Naruto could make corporeal bunshins and take on most genin, he used them to take out as many teams as possible to reduce the chances of him actually having to work in the third exam," Shikamaru explained out.

Surprisingly, Ino didn't get mad (well, madder) but did let out a frustrating sigh. "We're all Konoha shinobi though," she pouted at Naruto.

"Doesn't matter," Naruto wheezed out, "If you couldn't handle _one bunshin_ you didn't deserve to go further. I saved a lot of teams time and effort and maybe they'll start training seriously now."

Instead of dawning comprehension, Ino had a bewildered look on her face. "What the hell happened to you?" She finally asked Naruto.

"A big dick head with a shoun-ai fetish. He put a seal on me that messed with my insides and chakra, and bit Sasuke on the neck, leaving him some weird hickey-seal."

Ino immediately squealed when she heard about 'Sasuke-kun,' but Naruto just hobbled on, giving the two a half hearted salute before hobbling on. What Naruto didn't know was that Shikamaru had watched the whole altercation in the forest. From when Sakura first started the fight with the Oto-nin, to when Naruto stopped Sasuke.

Sakura, in her own right, could actually beat Shikamaru. It was true that he was a genius, but Sakura wasn't far behind, book wise. And from the looks of it, she had created several of her very own jutsu, which she was proficient with and also knew there strengths and weaknesses.

Sasuke was the rookie of their year at the academy, and he also had the Sharingan. He speed was unrivaled at the academy, his chakra capacity was easily chunin level and his taijutsu and ninjutsu were already bordering on the chunin level. It also looked like his skills had grown exponentially.

Naruto was the one that scared Shikamaru most though (in a fight, otherwise it's hard to be scared of a goof ball who dresses in all orange). After they turned nine, Naruto had completely disappeared from the academy. Most kids thought he flunked out or quit, but he shows up in he chunin exams, already having three years of more instruction from jonin-sensei or equivalent than the rest of the rookies. Just from the few seconds he could see from Sasuke and Naruto's brief encounter, he could see that Naruto had more speed than Sasuke (which put far faster than Shikamaru himself) but at least an intermediate understanding of human anatomy.

Shikamaru studied the results and came up with the conclusion that Team Seven was smarter, faster, and stronger than all other teams participating; and that if it came down to it, not fighting them would be the only way to ensure things didn't get more troublesome than they already were.

**Harinezumi no Jutsu:** Hedgehog/porcupine technique

**Shuurin no Sakura no Jutsu:** Autumn Rain of cherry blossoms technique

**Saizensen no Jutsu:** Spearhead technique

**Kijo no Jutsu:** Ogress technique


	10. The Chuunin Exams and Training!

**Disclaimer:** You know what I own and what I don't.

**Chapter 9: **Chunin Exam Preliminaries and Training!

Naruto was a little frazzled, to say the least. When he found out about the third and final portion of the Chunin exams were going to have a preliminary, and that this portion was purely individual, he thought he could finally quit. Sadly, the old man Hokage had other ideas and reversed Naruto's forfeit.

Normally, Naruto wouldn't have cared about wiping the floor with some of these genins, but he knew that if he was too good, he would get promoted to chuunin and his dreams of being the first Kage to be promoted directly from genin would go down the drain.

With Naruto's luck, he picked one of the, ehm, dimmest opponents in Inuzuka Kiba, someone who specialized in ninjutsu and taijutsu hybrid techniques, along with teaming up with his dog, Akamaru. Naruto knew a lot about Kiba, and a lot about most of the rookies who made the finals. As part of training missions for his 'team,' Naruto would make Konohamaru, Udon, and Moegi spy on various Konoha genin to practice their information gathering skills.

Kiba was currently trying to goad Naruto into attacking, but Naruto was just making Kiba mad by ignoring him and acting like he was cleaning his nails. Naruto finally had enough and barked at Kiba, "ENOUGH! I'll make you a deal, Kiba," Naruto began, " if you give up now, I promise not to embarrass you with one move and defeat you. I'm really not doing this for your benefit, but I don't want to hurt Akamaru."

"Pfft. Screw your deal," Kiba smirked at Naruto, "Me and Akamaru will _destroy_ you!"

When they both rushed Naruto, Naruto just 'tsked' and shook his head. Naruto carefully pursed his lips and started a continuous, unwavering whistle tone. Simultaneously, he began a sequence of five hand seal ending in a 'Tori' seal, his whistling exploded in a deafening blast... for Kiba and Akamaru. Everyone else just had a slight ringing in their ears, but Kiba and Akamaru were effectively knocked out, while blood slowly oozed out of their ears.

"**Ninpo: Jigoku Kane no Jutsu**: Success!" Naruto smirked.

Everyone from the Konoha rookies just stared dumbfounded at Naruto as he walked casually back up the stairs. Kiba was one of the foremost powerful genin from their class and was actually in the running for their rookie of the year, but came in at a distant second. Naruto noticed the looks he was getting and just shrugged, "I gave him a chance to give up," before turning back to the arena floor.

"When did you come up with that jutsu, Naruto?" Sakura asked flabbergasted.

"Well, I got the idea from those Oto-nins using sound, and I thought that would be a pretty cool idea for a jutsu, and I know that the Inuzukas have more sensitive senses than us, so I figured I'd come up with one then," Naruto explained innocently.

"You mean you came up with that jutsu on the spot?" a skeptic Shikamaru asked.

"Well, yeah," Naruto said, "don't you guys know I've been training to be a hand seal master?" The rookies surrounding him just shook their heads. Shikamaru himself was a little more afraid now to face Naruto now. He came up with a nearly perfect battle plan and had the ability to create jutsu on the spot. He knew Naruto was a shoo-in for Chuunin now.

Naruto was only in the second fight, Sasuke luckily got to go first and just eeked out a win over a guy who could suck chakra from his opponents. A few more fights passed, before his final teammate was called to fight. Sakura had been paired with Ino, and Naruto already knew of the outcome of this fight due to his 'information gathering' missions.

Both girls were squaring up when Sakura struck first. She went through a quick sequence of hand seals before shouting out "**Ninpo: Kijo no Jutsu****!" **

Ino started to scream before her screams turned to giggles. "Nice jutsu forehead, especially trying to make it seem like that genjutsu was a ninjutsu. But didn't you know, through my family's techniques, spotting genjutsu a genjutsu comes naturally to us?" Ino was starting to get arrogant now. "But I have to say, your 'beast form' actually seems like an improvement!"

That had pissed Sakura off. Ino had always been a good friend of hers, but every now and again, Ino would arrogantly make comments like that, or about how much more pretty she was than Sakura. Sakura had always thought they were true too, but at least she could finally prove she was more powerful than Ino.

"Fine. You think your so much better than me? If I don't beat you in the next thirty seconds, I'll forfeit myself," Sakura grunted out, before running her fingers through her pink mane. Each hand now had a handful of pink senbons. Sakura launched the little needles at Ino, who showed slight fear in her powder blue eyes. Ino tried to catch a few and throw them back at Sakura, only for them to go limp in her hands. Ino never noticed how the hair clung to her hands.

After a few more volleys, Sakura finally stopped throwing her senbons. Ino was slightly out of breath as she huffed, "Are you going to give up now? It's been about thirty seconds."

"Not quite," Sakura smirked as her hair that had stuck to Ino through chakra and static cling had begun wrapping around Ino. It was too late for the blond to do anything about it however as Sakura's hair had taken on the thickness of rope and quickly tied up Ino. However, it didn't stop there. Once Ino was wrapped from her neck to ankles, the hair started to constrict Ino.

"Do _you_give up, Ino?"

Ino couldn't answer then, she was being squeezed too tight. The proctor finally called the match right before Ino passed out. Sakura walked proudly back up to the other rookies and started to glow when Naruto praised her and her 'awesome' jutsu.

"You Sakura," Naruto began, "we should get together sometime and compare notes on making jutsu. Like over dinner or something?" Sakura could only shake her head at Naruto's drive to get her go on another date, but she couldn't wipe the smile off her face.

More rounds passed on, some impressive (like the fight between Rock Lee and Gaara), and others not so much (Temari annihilating Tenten). Finally, all the matches had finished and the finally contestants consisted of Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Gaara, Shikamaru, Temari, Shino, and Kankuro.

They all had to go down and pick their numbers and prepare for their fights in a months time. Naruto drew a 'two' and Sakura drew a 'five.' Kakashi had to come down and draw for Sasuke who got a 'seven.' Once everyone had finished drawing they were matched up. Naruto would fight 'one,' Sakura 'six,' and Sasuke would fight 'eight.' The results, were slightly scary (for only two members of Team Seven at least). Naruto would end up fighting Aburame Shino, who Naruto suspected would try to get revenge for his teammate. Sasuke had to fight Shikamaru, who was a little irked at having to fight a Sharingan user, because his jutsu's were family owned, but anyone who knew the correct seals could do them. And Sasuke's Sharingan could take those jutsu. The scariest match though was Sakura... against Gaara. She had visibly paled at the thought, especially at what she witnessed him do to Lee.

Walking out of the arena next to Kakashi, Naruto gave Sakura a reassuring squeeze on her shoulder and an encouraging smile. "Don't worry Sakura-chan, Kakashi will help us be strong enough to defeat our opponents!"

Naruto was brought down from his pep talk when he heard Kakashi. "Um, well, you see, I have to train Sasuke." He said with a, what looked like, consoling eye smile.

"And us too," Naruto said as if he was talking to someone slow. "Sakura is your student, and when I took this mission, it was under the impression you were going to treat me like a student."

"I'm sorry Naruto, Sakura, but Sasuke needs one on one training. But don't worry, I've lined someone up to help you two, Ebisu-sensei!"

"Well, don't bother," Naruto growled out angrily, "we don't want to be sloppy seconds. We'll train ourselves, _dickhead_!"

Kakashi frowned when Naruto called him that. Sakura looked slightly taken aback too. She was used to Kakashi pushing her off to the side anyways, so this wasn't anything new. "Look," Kakashi began, "I didn't want to tell you two this, as it's none of your business, but the real reason why I'm training Sasuke is to stop his corruption."

Naruto and Sakura looked puzzled and slightly scared at that statement. "His mindset, added to the Curse Seal he received, is messing with Sasuke's mind. I have to seal that Curse Seal, then try and convince Sasuke to stay normal... well, as normal as he is anyway against the influence to the Curse Seal."

"What's this curse seal business?" Naruto asked.

"The Curse Seal corrupts the users mind. The more Sasuke uses it, the more he loses himself. The seal I will apply to suppress it only works in conjunction with the user's will power. So if Sasuke doesn't want my seal to work, it won't. That's why I have to be with Sasuke and convince him he doesn't need that power."

"Hmph," Naruto grunted out. "Well, I still say screw you and your teacher. We are a team, and we could help Sasuke. So go screw yourself, tell Sasuke he can screw himself too, and also tell him I'm gonna mop the floor with him at the Chuunin Exam. Me and Sakura will fend for ourselves."

Before Sakura could say anything, Naruto drug her away from Kakashi as he walked. She eventually wrenched her arm out of Naruto's grasp. "What the hell, Naruto, you didn't have to act like that to Kakashi-sensei!"

"Sensei my ass," Naruto said under his breath.

"What was that, Naruto?" Sakura growled out.

"Sakura, he just blew so much smoke up our asses." Sakura looked puzzled at Naruto. "He can make Kage Bunshins. If he needs so much 'special time' with Sasuke, he could make a _one_ Kage Bunshin and have that train us."

"Naruto, bunshins can't do all of the stuff he can. They're not real."

"_Kage Bunshins_ are. They're physical, can use jutsu, and are independent thinking. Kakashi is just too lazy to do it." Sakura looked a little deflated at his comments, but Naruto didn't let her dwell on it.

"C'mon, let's find Iruka, a _real sensei_. Maybe he can help us out."

The duo made their way to the Academy and caught Iruka in between classes. Naruto explained his story to him, and gave an exasperated sigh. "Naruto, I'm sorry, but I can't help you. The Academy is in session and I have to prepare the graduating class for graduation."

"Dammit!" Naruto yelled out in frustration. Iruka felt for Naruto and Sakura, but secretly, he didn't have anything more to teach Naruto. In the three years they trained together, Iruka had pretty much exhausted his knowledge.

"Wait, there is _one _thing I can do for you two," Iruka said with a smile. He led them to a supply closet down the hall, checking over his shoulder, making sure no one was looking.

"This might not work," Iruka explained as he channeled some chakra into the door as it swung open, "you two might be too young, but it's worth a shot."

Iruka pulled out two square papers. "These are papers designed to help chuunins find out what their elemental affinity is. Usually, these are given to seasoned chuunin who have used several different elemental jutsus. What it does is let you know what your natural affinities are. Here," he said, handing each a piece of paper, "channeling some chakra into the paper."

Sakura went first, but nothing happened. Sakura looked crest fallen, but Iruka patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry Sakura, you might be too young. Otherwise, being neutral is just as good as having an affinity. It means you can use all elements equally well. The Sandaime is neutrally aligned. That's why he can do so many jutsu without limitations." Sakura smiled in his consoling, happy to know she wasn't a failure.

"What does this mean?" Naruto asked Iruka as he held up two pieces of paper, split down the middle.

"That means," Iruka began, you have a wind affinity."

"Aww, _wind_? But I hate the _wind_. It's so... _windy_!" Both Iruka and Sakura sweat dropped at hearing Naruto complain and his adjective for the wind.

"Being aligned isn't bad, Naruto," Iruka calmly explained. "Wind is used to sharpen and lengthen bladed weapons to the point of cutting boulders and making kunai and shurikan fly further and faster. In fact, wind is the rarest elemental affinity in Konohagakure along with lightning."

"You mean there is a _lightning_ affinity! Why couldn't I get that one!?" Naruto whined.

"Here," Iruka said as he snatched the paper from Sakura's hand and gave it to Naruto. "Use your left hand this time, that will let us know if you have a secondary affinity." Iruka snapped. Naruto was being too loud and Iruka was tired of hearing him whine.

Naruto channeled some more chakra in the other piece before this one started to burn, then split down the middle, and finally started to smoke. "Well, what the hell does that mean?" Naruto asked.

Iruka rubbed his chin in thought, no longer bothered by Naruto's pestering. "It could mean three things: first, your still too young to have a second affinity, but fire is starting to appear. Or it could mean that your wind affinity is so strong, it is also part of your second affinity. The third, and most unlikely, is that you might have a elemental hybrid, a bloodline in other words, combining fire and wind into what might be smoke."

"Smoke?" Naruto and Sakura said at the same time. Iruka just shrugged his shoulders as the bell for the next chimed in the background.

Naruto and Sakura made it to the hot springs after a quick hint that learning to walk on water would hone their chakra control even more, and that there was a hot spring designed next to the onsens in Konoha just for that purpose.

After a few minutes of training, Sakura had noticed an old man in red peeping on the women's side of the onsens. She had screamed bloody murder, scaring Naruto and making the man jump. Naruto jumped at the chance to defend the honor of Konoha's female population and demanded the perv stop and desist his peeping.

The man chuckled, flexing his muscles. He quickly summoned a frog and did a little dance, introducing himself as the legendary Sannin Jiraiya. Sakura didn't know if she should be in awe or disgust at meeting Konoha's equivalent to royalty.

Naruto didn't have any care as he eyeballed the man. Nodding to himself, he summoned two Kage bunshins, already henged into his Oiroke no Jutsu. Naruto did his own little ridiculous dance, introducing himself as future best seller author of 'how to pick women,' and future Hokage. The man just laughed as he said to himself, 'This is gonna be _fun!__'_

**AN:**

People have remarked that Naruto is too goofy or whatnot. I say, that's the Naruto I like. That's why I like the series, is because of Naruto. The real Naruto, not an emo or super dude and what have you. Also, I like Naruto because he is obviously a Denver Broncos fan, which I can relate to (look at the way he dresses).

Fear not though, the next chapter is gonna be dark. Naruto is gonna face something that I don't think he can or ever will be prepared for: a death of his precious person!

**Jutsus:**

**Ninpo: Jigoku Kane no Jutsu**: Hell's Bells technique. C-ranked and effective against those with powerful senses, namely, hearing.

**Ninpo: Kijo no Jutsu**: Ogress Technique: Sakura's personal genjutsu. Only D-ranked, as it doesn't do much of anything, but scare the crap out of someone if they don't recognize the genjutsu.


	11. Chuunin Exam Day!

**Disclaimer:** You know what I own.

**Chapter 10: Chuunin Exam Day!**

The month Sakura spent with the legendary Sannin Jiraiya and Naruto was one of the most exciting, enlightening, and annoying times of her young life. Jiraiya, after teaching her and Naruto the Water Walking chakra control exercise, taught her his very own jutsu, **Hari Jizou** jutsu. However, unlike Jiraiya's technique, Sakura's hair was too fine to make it into the needle guardian, and by herself, came up with her very own technique from the situation: **Kongou Jizou**. This actually worked out better for Sakura anyways in her strategy to try and beat Gaara. However, to do that, she also had to get faster, which through rigorous taijutsu training and her chakra control training, she could now match Naruto's speed.

Naruto also learned a lot from Jiraiya, as Jiraiya spent most time with Naruto. It wasn't so much favoritism, but the fact that Naruto was making things difficult for Jiraiya. Sometimes, when Jiraiya was teaching Naruto, he would pick up whatever he taught instantly. Other times, Naruto couldn't stop bitching about his stomach problems. When it looked like Jiraiya was about to kill the blond, Sakura calmly pointed out, having rested up from her taijutsu training, that what was causing Naruto discomfort was the fact that Orochimaru put a seal on his stomach. Jiraiya quickly lifted up Naruto's shirt and identified the goguouofuuin over his 'other' seal. Jiraiya released that seal two weeks into his training with the two genin, and Naruto had to spend another week relearning his chakra control since he now had a vast amount of more chakra to control.

However, while in between his bitching, Naruto did learn a few useful things. First thing Jiraiya taught him was seals. It wasn't a lot, but more like a crash course in the subject. Coupled with Naruto's knowledge of hand seals, which were almost the same thing in a different format, he quickly grew in that area of expertise (also having a few hundred Kage Bunshins working on seals day in and day out helped as well). Jiraiya also taught Naruto one new ninjutsu as per Naruto's idea to deal with his Aburame opponent.

When Jiraiya found out about Naruto's affinity to wind, he also gave him two wazakashis. The only thing really special about the blades, as Jiraiya explained it, was that the metal was conductive to chakra, thus, not wearing the metal away when channeling chakra through the blades. Jiraiya taught Naruto a couple stances to use, but Naruto took on his own sword training.

Naruto used his new chakra control to take advantage of the two blades not having a hand guard and spun them in his hands at a constant speed, making them look like small hurricanes. The funny part, to Sakura, was when he channeled wind chakra into the blades, causing them to lengthen. But instead of controlling the length of the blades, Naruto got caught in his own 'storm' and wound up with shredded clothes and what looked like the equivalent to paper cuts all over his body.

When Naruto wasn't training with his blades, he tried to get the ninjutsu master Jiraiya to help him figure out his 'smoke' affinity. Jiraiya couldn't think of any uses for smoke in a battle that hadn't created already, and couldn't figure out _how_ to make smoke from chakra. Jiraiya instead, suggested that instead of _making_ smoke,Naruto should _manipulate_ it. This resulted in Naruto's first puff of a cigar, to Sakura's dismay, and consequently puking to Jiraiya's amusement. Naruto vowed to never use his smoke affinity unless he needed to, and kept one cigar on him just in case the few jutsu he did come up with were needed.

The reason why Sakura got so annoyed with Jiraiya and Naruto was because towards the end of the day, each day, they would fight over who was the better 'author' and who had better material. It was exasperating to the young girl, hearing two men discuss what women really wanted, when they were so off the mark. Sakura realized it was what the two men _wanted_, just with some bells and whistles. She could only shake her head at their antics and huff in exasperation when, at the end of their month of training, Jiraiya offered to take Naruto's manuscript to his publisher to see what he could do.

That had occurred yesterday, and Naruto and Sakura were both walking to the stadium together, having found neither hide nor hair of their other two teammates. Naruto had his confident foxy smile on, with his hands behind his head as Sakura fidgeted with her hair, hands, clothes or anything else she could find to fidget with.

"Don't worry Sakura," Naruto said, startling the girl next to him, "you'll do great! You trained so hard and I'm sure you'll kick that creepy guy's ass!"

"Thanks Naruto," Sakura replied. She seemed o settle down somewhat, but she only channeled her nervousness inside, just to make sure her nerves didn't infect Naruto (though she doubted that could ever happen).

"Hey Naruto!" Someone shouted through the crowd when Naruto and Sakura made their way to the gates of the stadium. Jogging easily through the crowd was Iruka, with a beaming, infectious smile on his face that he gave to the two (one really) chuunin hopefuls.

"What's up Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"I just wanted to tell you two things: first, I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help to you two for the exams."

"Don't worry about it, Iruka-sensei. We did alright, didn't we Sakura-chan?" Naruto said, wagging his eyebrows in the pink haired girls direction. Sakura could only giggle; yeah I guess training with a Sannin for a month was pretty _alright_.

"Good! I'm glad," Iruka said with a grin. "The thing I wanted to tell you Naruto was... well it was supposed to be a surprise for when you get promoted, but I couldn't wait!" Iruka said, like a girl who just got a juicy piece of gossip and was rocking on both feet waiting to let it out.

"Spit it out, man!" Naruto said, getting excited himself. Iruka rarely got excited, if ever.

"Oh alright... I'm going to take the Jonin exams!" Iruka said with obvious excitement.

"Well... good for you Iruka-sensei," Naruto dully replied. He was hoping that Iruka said he was going to get him, I don't know, a pony or something for winning the Chuunin Exams.

"Don't you see Naruto," Iruka said, placing both hands on his shoulders, "while you're chuunin and I'm jonin, we can take high ranked missions together! We can go all over the continent fighting bad guys and saving villages!" Naruto perked up with this information. That did sound like a lot of fun. Even if Naruto didn't pass onto chuunin, since Iruka would finally be jonin, he could have an apprentice and Naruto could have an official sensei.

"Yeah," Naruto said, as it looked like he was mentally visualizing his missions, "I like that!"

Iruka wished both students luck, and with a giddy fervor, found a spot in the stands. Sakura was slightly jealous that she didn't have a relationship like that with her sensei. She learned more from Jiraiya in one month than Kakashi in six. But she realized, that it was better that way. Kakashi was a pervert and she wouldn't be strong like she was now. Also, would she, someone from a common civilian background, have gotten a chance to train with a _legendary Sannin_ if Kakashi cared?

Sakura's thoughts were cut off when the booming voice of the Sandaime Hokage cut through, silencing the crowd and her internal thoughts. The Hokage made a grand speech about different village relationships and good will (despite the fact that only two villages, one highly over the other, were participating).

The crowd cheered and after that, a jonin chewing on a senbon arrived and called, "Would Aburame Shino and Uzumaki Naruto make their way to the arena."

'Crap," Sakura thought as the butterflies in her stomach reached their maximum, 'this is really happening, now,' and she looked up, straight into the intimidating eyes of her opponent's decidedly malicious ones, Sabaku no Gaara.

Naruto was starting to get antsy and excited. He loved to battle, and was hoping that the kids he would be fighting would help determine how much he had grown. His basic strategy for each opponent he would face was simple: one hit knockouts. Sure, that would be tough with some of the competitors, but the less he showed, the less chance he had for promotion. Then again, knowing thy enemy too well would result in a promotion. It was hard, walking the line.

The referee announced, 'Hajime,' only for the two genin to stare at each other. Surprisingly, it was Shino who spoke.

"I look forward to what strategy you have devised for me, Uzumaki-san, but your transgression against my teammate will have to be avenged," the Aburame finished as a mass of kikai swarmed out of his sleeves.

"Does your throat hurt? 'Cause that's the most I've heard you say... ever!" Naruto taunted as he went into hand seals, "**Suiton: Mizuame Nabara no Jutsu**!" Sweet, sticky syrup coated the arena floor in a matter of seconds. Naruto calmly hopped up onto the surface, using his water walking ability to not stick to the surface. Shino wasn't as adept, but clung to the arena wall, not knowing how to water walk.

Thing that irked Shino most was that instead of his kikai seeking out the Uzumaki, they dived into the syrup, getting stuck and fat at the same time.

"If it's one thing I've learned from not cleaning my apartment," Naruto began in his self important style, "is that bugs love the sweet stuff. If you forfeit now, I'll dispel the technique and your bugs will be perfectly fine- just fatter," Naruto finished smirking.

"Impressive, Uzumaki-san," Shino said, pushing up his sunglasses, "But they're not 'bugs,' they're kikai, and they're not my only hive." Shino once again extended his arms, having another, albeit smaller, swarm come out. "These kikai are meat eaters. They have no need for the... 'sweet stuff.'"

And sure enough, the small cloud of kikai began to swarm Naruto. "Shit," Naruto cursed to himself and unsheathed his swords so fast that it provided a gust of wind to blow back the kikai. However, after the gust ended, the kikai regrouped and went again for Naruto.

"**Fuuton: Senbu no Jutsu**!" Naruto yelled out, with each sword spinning in his hand, creating an almost horizontal tornado, scattering the bugs. After thirty seconds, though, the spinning was causing Naruto's hands to chafe and he had to stop, with only the bugs regrouping again.

"Dammit!" Naruto yelled in frustration. "Know this, Aburame, you made me do this!" and Naruto took out his cigar. Some of the females let out indignant protests at a twelve year old getting ready to light up. Kiba, surprisingly, let out a whoop for Naruto and his ballsy move, with the Sandaime rubbed his forehead at the move. No doubt, after this was all over, _he_ would be blamed for it, always smoking his pipe around impressionable young minds.

Naruto stuck one finger in the air as it ignited in flames (best thing for smokers with a fire affinity). Naruto lit the cigar...only to double over a puke to the amusement of the crowd and boisterous laughing of the Inuzukas. Naruto got back up, looking more pale as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. He also heard someone shout, "Hey dumb ass, don't inhale!" only causing the crowd to chuckle more. Naruto only grit his teeth while holding the cigar in his mouth, going through some seals "**Enkaton: Endoku**!"

The cloud of smoke surrounding Naruto surrounded him in a translucent fog. "Let's see your bugs get through this!" Naruto yelled as he began to run for Shino. Shino raised an eyebrow as his kikai refused to get close to Naruto through his 'fog.' Shino tried to replace himself with a **Mushi no Bunshin**, but that clone refused to engage Naruto. Shino had no choice but to engage Naruto himself.

Naruto was lightening quick, Shino realized, and only eighty percent of the time was able to try and strike Naruto. His taijutsu seemed to anticipate Shino's move, thus countering the move before it even happened. When Shino did get a punch or kick off, Naruto seemed to bend around it, in an almost inhuman way.

The taijutsu match didn't last long before Naruto connected and knocked out Shino. "Winner: Uzumaki Naruto!" The crowd cheered and laughed, happy that Naruto won. It did seem only fair, since he did puke in front of nearly a thousand people.

"Eww, Naruto, you stink!" Sakura said, holding her nose with one hand and trying to wave the air out with the other.

"Har-dee, har har," Naruto said sarcastically. He was a little miffed that he embarrassed himself in front of potential clients, the Hokage, and the citizens of Konoha.

The next match, between two of the three Suna siblings was less that impressive: the puppet master gave up as he sparred his sister several times before and knew who would win. Sadly, that made Sakura's match next, "Good luck Sakura! I know you'll kick his ass!" Naruto said, giving her two thumbs up.

Sakura shakily made her way down the stairs. She could hear the rumbling of the crowd on the other side of concrete. She emerged from the stair well, walking as slowly as possible, trying to prolong the start of the match for anything to happen. Sadly, she stood thirty yards away for the detached, murderous gaze of Gaara. Sakura heard a muffled 'Kick his ass!' from Naruto before the ref sliced his hand through the air yelling, "Hajime!"

"Justify my existence, Haruno-san," drawled out the emotionless Gaara as he sent a wave of sand towards Sakura. Sakura had planned on this, she had planned out the whole match for her to win during her month of training. Sakura was quickly caught in Gaara's sand before she shouted "**Ninpo: Kongou Jizou**!" She was covered by her hair that was as hard as a diamond as Gaara's sand quickly covered her up.

"Your time ends now," Gaara drawled out. Before he could finish his technique a muffled, "**Ninpo: Daiharinezumi no Jutsu**!" was heard as Sakura's **Kongou Jizou** exploded outwards in thick needles, removing the sand from her person. She then used her new found speed to keep a distance from Gaara before swinging her head in a circular fashion, launching volleys of senbon at Gaara.

Little poofs of sand exploded upwards, blocking the majority of the senbon. However, Sakura kept her assault up, discreetly drawing three of her hairs out, and thrusting her fist into the ground.

"**Ninpo: Saizensen no Jutsu**!" Sakura shouted as three pink pike like hairs emerged from the ground in front of Gaara, trying to stab him forcing Gaara into his circular shield.

'Perfect,' Sakura thought to herself. She ran around the wall of the arena once, building up momentum before launching herself high into the air. Sakura was as high as the topmost seats in the arena before she once again activated her Kongou** Jizou**, this time, everyone was able to notice the sharp point of her hair at the bottom of her feet. Sakura started to spin, causing the now upside down pink tear drop shape to spin. When she reached the pinnacle of her ascent the silent crowd heard the spinning Sakura yell out "**Sakura Tama**!" before speeding down towards Gaara's sphere.

Sadly, Sakura was moving so fast, she never took into account of a sand eye above the shell. Sakura breeched Gaara's shield, going so far as waist deep into the shield. Sakura was able to tell that, while slightly breaking the shield, she had missed Gaara by inches. However, she had made plans in case that had happened and shouted "**Ninpo: Daiharinezumi no Jutsu**!" For the second time in five minutes, Sakura exploded once again in thick pink needles, destroying Gaara's shield.

Sakura jumped away from the dust her jutsu caused. Once the cloud had settled, Gaara emerged, with a maniacal laugh, cracks all over his body, and some blood trickling from various points from his body.

"Mother wants your blood," Gaara said crazily as he sent his sand again towards Sakura.

"I forfeit!" Sakura yelled out. That was her plan and it failed. She had no other jutsu to breech Gaara's ultimate defense and wouldn't be able to think of one for a while.

Gaara's sand froze three feet from Sakura for a second, before continuing on towards his target.

"She forfeited," The referee said, cutting off the sands attack, "cease your attack or you will be disqualified."

"Then disqualify me," Gaara drawled out send sand at both Sakura and the proctor. The Kazekage quickly gave a quick nod to a Konoha ANBU unit stationed in the stadium. Immediately after, most people started to fall asleep. Ninja with Suna and Oto jumped over the stadium wall into the arena and emerged from the civilian population, slitting the throats of sleeping Konoha-nin and engaging with Konoha shinobi trying to retaliate back.

Naruto watched as the Sand siblings went down to the arena floor, dragging Gaara out into the forest surrounding Konoha. Naruto quickly left the competitors booth, searching for Iruka and killing enemy shinobi when he came across them. Naruto saw Iruka fighting five enemy nin and ran over to help.

"Hey Iruka-sensei!" Naruto yelled out, kicking an enemy nin through a wall. Iruka turned around and gave a big smile to Naruto, despite being covered in blood.

"Hey Naruto. Just like we imagined, eh?" Iruka laughed. Naruto did too, but stopped when he felt something wet and sticky on his face. He opened his eyes, noticing that there was a sword sticking out of Iruka's chest.

"What?' Iruka asked as his eyes had the light fading out of them.

"What?" he asked again. Naruto watched in horror as Iruka started to fall limp. However, as if his body was remembering the moves it was forced to learn, a kunai whipped out behind Iruka, disemboweling Iruka's attacker killing him. Iruka then cut down the other five nin's surrounding him, before falling on his stomach.

"N-naruto? What's going on? What happened?" Iruka asked before his head fell, never to raise again.

"NO!" Naruto yelled as more Oto nin made it to the scene. Naruto instinctively observed his enemies and their movements, before having his hands blur into seals. Naruto finished on an unfamiliar seal, both hands forming a circle over his midsection. Naruto erupted into a cloud of red, murderous chakra as he growled out "**Akujinjutsu: Suiton: Iruka no Kataki no Jutsu**!"

**Jutsu:**

**Hari Jizou**: Needle Guardian

**Kongou Jizou**: Diamond Guardian

**Suiton: Mizuame Nabara no Jutsu**: Starchy Syrup Tech.

**Fuuton: Senbu no Jutsu**: Lucky Day but Not in The Morning Tech.

**Enkaton: Endoku**: Smoke Release: Smoke Pollution

**Ninpo: Daiharinezumi no Jutsu:** Great Porcupine Tech.

**Sakura Tama:** Cherry Blossom Bullet

**Akujinjutsu: Suiton: Iruka no Kataki no Jutsu:** Evil God Technique: Water Release: Revenge of the Dolphin Tech.


	12. The Reckoning

**Disclaimer: **You know what I own.

**Chapter 11:** The Reckoning

"**Akujinjutsu: Suiton: Iruka no Kataki no Jutsu!"** Naruto growled out, as his violent red chakra coalesced around Iruka's spilled blood. Iruka's blood bubbled, as if were being boiled, until it took the shape of a horse sized, rabid dolphin. The bloody red dolphin snapped its beak a couple of times before lunging at the closest, awestruck Oto-nin. The dolphin squeeze itself into the gaping maw of the nin, drowning him in blood before exploding out from his chest. Another dolphin arose out of that nin's body. Each dolphin subsequently drowned and exploded out of fear stricken Oto-nin's.

Kakashi had finally made his way to where Naruto was standing, feeling Naruto's rage and palpable Killing Intent. Before Kakashi could contemplate if Naruto's demon had taken over the young boy, the stadium shook as a massive brown Tanuki had emerged a mile into Konoha's dense forest.

"Naruto," Kakashi barked, "Stop that monster!" Before Kakashi could blink, Naruto was off. Doubts about whether Naruto was in control or not faded as Naruto followed orders. As Kakashi examined the damage Naruto had inflicted upon the unsuspecting Oto-nin's, his gazed stopped on a fallen Konoha shinobi, with a katana wound going through their back. Further examining showed Kakashi Naruto's source for his rage. Naruto's life-long sensei and surrogate older brother had fallen victim to the Oto invasion.

Meanwhile, Naruto seemed to be unconsciously controlling his troupe of dolphins. They randomly searched out Suna and Oto-nin's during his trek to the brown behemoth just outside Konoha's walls, increasing their numbers exponentially.

By the time Naruto reached the Tanuki, it was on the verge of breaching Konoha's walls. Naruto was surrounded by roughly two hundred bloody dolphins at this point, each seemingly foaming at their beaks for an unquenchable revenge. Naruto's brain could not think of any plan of attack, it was running on pure muscle memory and instincts.

Naruto had felt something peculiar though, as a massive sandy paw crushed part of Konoha's outer wall. The beast itself was drenched in blood.

"The blood of your village and you will be mine!" Exclaimed a sadistic voice atop the beast's head, showing Naruto a spot of red at the very height of the Tanuki.

"Fool," Naruto growled out, but was still loud enough for the insane Suna-nin to hear, "you are at a disadvantage… your blood will be _mine_!" Naruto finished off, flashing through hand seals.

"**Akujinjutsu: Suiton: Dai-Iruka no Kataki no Jutsu!"** Naruto shouted as he finished, causing his dolphin army to collide with the Tanuki, knocking it slightly off balance. A second later, a bloody blob of blood emerge from the sand, causing the sand beast to sag. The blob itself was easily as big as a city block before taking shape of a giant dolphin. Naruto jumped on the back of the dolphin, running until he was on top of the dolphin's angry head.

"Blood is a natural conductor of chakra, due to its close proximity to the chakra coils," Naruto explained, remembering the words his fallen sensei had taught him. "By taking the blood in your sand, I take away your ability to support the sand. Like I said, your blood is _mine_."

The Tanuki seemed to be falling apart as Naruto explained his jutsu. Gaara was in fear, for the first time in a long time, as he could not consciously control his sand anymore. Gaara quickly settled himself down and forced himself to sleep.

Shukaku, however, was easily able to control the sand. While being released, his demonic chakra was easily able to by-pass the shoddy seal placed on Gaara and control his natural sand element. Shukaku drove Gaara to his bloodlust. Shukaku had no perception of reality from Gaara's mind, his only connection to the outside world was what he could perceive through his sand. Thus, he drove Gaara to killing or lashing out with his sand at odd intervals, hoping to snare a passer by and add blood to the sand he controlled.

"I'm free, baby!" Shukaku yelled in insane joy. By this point, the sand that had been falling off the giant Tanuki had reversed itself and attached itself back on to the sand behemoth.

At this time, Naruto's rage was abating, but his grief was starting to emerge. This only affected his fight because it allowed him to think more rationally after his rage induced mind had cleared a little.

'I took away the source of his chakra, how is he able to still maintain it?' Naruto thought to himself. Naruto examined the creature before him more. 'His movements are more erratic now, less controlled than before. It looks like he's asleep too. He must have a Kekkai Genkai or something that let's him control sand on an unconscious level... I have to wake him up!'

With his conclusion, Naruto tried to guide his dolphin within range of the red haired boy, but the Tanuki would launch wind blasts at him to keep him at bay. 'Enough of this,' Naruto thought as the dolphin finally got close enough that it morphed into a more snake like shape and constricted the Tanuki, luckily placing him within yards of the red head.

"Got you now!" Naruto yelled out as he rushed the boy, dodging sand spikes along the way. "Wake _up_!" Naruto yelled again as his punch landed squarely on the red head's jaw, arousing him from his dangerous slumber.

Both the Tanuki and dolphin started to crumbled or dissipate once the hit landed, as both monstrosities lost their chakra source. Gaara groggily moved to a tree to help himself stay upright while Naruto was suffering from chakra exhaustion and burns over his body through extended use of his jutsu's red chakra.

"A-are you going to kill me now?" Gaara asked in what appeared to be a child like innocence to Naruto.

"Do you deserve to be killed?" Naruto asked, his question coming out in wheezes.

"Yes?" Gaara answered in what seemed to be more of a question. Gaara's eyes showed more emotion than he felt since Yashamaru's betrayal.

However, before any boy could act, a girl with four blond pigtails jumped into the sandy clearing, taking a protective stance in front of the red head.

"You'll have to go through me if you want to get to me brother!" She said with steel in her voice.

"T-temari?" Gaara asked amazed. He would have never guessed his older sister would come to his rescue. She gave him a comforting smile to her younger brother, before turning a steely gaze to Naruto.

"I had no intention of killing him," Naruto explained. His eyes were getting heavier as he spoke, "I just wanted to stop him before he hurt anyone from my village," and passed into darkness.

Naruto awoke an hour later, with Sasuke and Sakura watching over him. He hadn't moved far from his original spot where he passed out. He was now leaned up against a tree to support his upper body.

"What happened?" Naruto asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Sakura and Sasuke looked dubiously between themselves before Sasuke answered. "We happened upon you right when you passed out. Those... _things _were insane!" Sasuke exclaimed.

"What did you do to Gaara?" Sakura asked with a little more tact than Sasuke, who was still shaking his head, trying to comprehend the scale of the battle.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked as he tried to get up. His whole body, while not in pain, was incredibly stiff.

"When Sasuke-kun and I found you, we heard Gaara beg his sister not to kill you... he called you his 'master' or 'sensei' or something," Sakura said, looking on with concern as Naruto tried to work the kinks out of his back.

Naruto continued to fidget, trying to get his natural mobility back while also trying to figure out what Gaara meant. Naruto didn't think he taught Gaara anything or showed him anything, but nonetheless, was still thankful he pleaded for his life.

"I don't know," Naruto started after a long pause, "I didn't do anything except beat him. I guess he just realized you don't have to kill people to be happy, since I spared his."

All three genin looked into themselves, trying to think if they could have turned into Gaara, needing to be saved and have their own lives spared to save them from the brink of insanity. For two of the genin, it was a definite possibility.

Rain fell from the sky like the tears from Naruto's eyes. Naruto was sopping wet, his black clothes plastered to his body. He had been there the whole day, at his and Iruka's training grounds. Naruto had made a crude marker for his master's memory. Iruka, like every other Konoha-nin that died only a few days ago, had their bodies cremated to prevent rival villages from exhuming the bodies and learning the secrets of the Konoha-nin. Also like those nin, Iruka's name was carved into the memorial stone, just like his parents. However, Naruto didn't want to be there. Everyone was there honoring the Sandaime Hokage, who also fell that day. Naruto had only wanted it to be him and Iruka, his brother, his father. He would pay the Sandaime a visit some other day.

"Thought you might be here," a gruff, familiar voice said to Naruto. Naruto turned around to see Jiraiya standing a few yards from him. "You know the Sandaime's funeral let out _four hours _ago, right?" Jiraiya asked.

Naruto only looked on with emotionless eyes before going back to his and Iruka's marker.

"It's not fair, is it? Losing the ones you love, respect, admire," Jiraiya continued on with a distant voice. "I was in love once. A beauitiful girl, smart, powerful. Always put me in my place, y'know? One day though," Jiraiya said while choking up a little, "she got ambushed by some Ame-nin's. She took her fair amount down with her, but she died that day, in the service of Konoha.

"It never gets easier," Jiraiya said, voice changing with the subject, "you might think that, after time, the pain lessens... it doesn't. Everytime, like now, someone close to you dies, it just opens up that old wound and you can't help but think of everyone you have ever loved or respected that has passed on."

Naruto, to show courtesy in, what he assumed was, a rare moment for Jiraiya, observed the man who trained him. He seemed to be looking far off with a wispy smile on his face. Naruto turned back to his marker as Jiraiya continued on, lost in his thoughts. The two remained like that for another hour before Jiraiya broke out of his nostalgia.

"Tell you what kid, how 'bout you and me leave the village for a while. Do a little sight seeing, visit some pretty girls, maybe train a little, and look for my old teammate."

"Why are you looking for your teammate?" Naruto questioned in a raspy voice.

"Well, Konoha needs a Hokage, right? And right now, she's the only one around who is qualified enough to lead the village. That would put a feather in your cap, huh, saying you brought back the Godaime Hokage."

Naruto sat a few seconds longer. He really should get away from Konoha for a little while. There were just too many painful reminders of him and Iruka, not to mention him and Jiji.

"Sure," Naruto said as he got up, with just the hint of a ghost of a smile. He would go on for Iruka, and be the best Kage the world had ever known.

**AN:**

I'm back biznotches. A lot of people didn't like Iruka dying, but he doesn't play that big of a role after the Academy days, which is a shame because he is a stand up guy in my book. I'm sure his memory in this fic will play a bigger role than his current live one in the manga.

Some things I want to address are that some people thought it was too canon-y. How? Over five people did not fight who they original fought in he chunin exams. Naruto never went to wave. He doesn't know about the Kyuubi... yet.

Also, others were wondering about who the other rookies fought. I don't care who they fought, I skip over crap like that in other fic's, don't watch those animes, just who cares. You're focusing on all the wrong things if you're that concerned with arbitrary fights like those.

Finally, those concerned with, I guess you'd say, 'mechanics.' I keep chapters between 2-5,000 words (min-max). I also don't do cliffhangers. All of this I do for the benefit of you all... and me. For you guys, I know I don't update frequently, so shorter chapters help you read through and remember what's going on. Also, I don't want you all to get bogged down with details and such that are meaningless for anything else in the fic. For me, I don't get paid doing this. I don't have the time to write 50 page chapters because I have to go to work and school (one week left then I graduate from the big C).

Sorry if you all don't like that, or for the extra long AN. Cry me a river.

**Jutsu List:**

**Akujinjutsu: Suiton: Dai-Iruka no Kataki no Jutsu: **Same as the one from last chapter, but it's a 'great' dolphin now, roughly a city block in size.


	13. Battle with Orochimaru!

**Disclaimer: **You know what I own

**Chapter 13: Battle With Orochimaru!**

"Oof," Naruto grunted as Kabuto landed a kick to his gut. Blood was trickling out of Naruto's mouth from an earlier blow as he gingerly got up. The fight had not been going well ever since he and Jiraiya arrived on the scene.

The battle between Tsunade and Orochimaru came to a stand still as Kabuto sliced his hand and froze Tsunade from continuing the fight, stopping Tsunade from continuing to mop the floor with them. That's when Naruto and Jiraiya took over.

The fight between Jiraiya and Orochimaru had not been going well for the perverted hermit, despite Orochimaru's handicap. Tsunade had laced Jiraiya's drink from the night previous with too much of her chakra drug, making Jiraiya sluggish and slow to react. It was almost as if Orochimaru was fighting a drunk with the poison running through his veins. Orochimaru enjoyed the fight only a little. Sure, he liked beating up Jiraiya, but because of the drug, Jiraiya's nerves were affected, reducing the pain he should have been feeling.

Naruto's fight with Kabuto started off well enough. Kabuto was still trying to get the hang of coordinating his movements after the jutsu Tsunade had used on him that disrupted the signals his brain sent to his body, allowing him to get in a couple of good blows on the bespectacled traitor. However, after only a minute of fighting, Kabuto was able to figure out the backward signals traveling through his body; quickly matching Naruto's blows with his own and then some. Kabuto was still not moving as fast as he could, seeing as his coordination took extreme concentration of trying to override his natural and instinctual reactions, but he was still just a little bit faster than Naruto. Naruto was kicked around a few more times, and even had a couple of muscles and tendons cut, thanks to Kabuto's eerily green glowing hands.

Shizune, Tsunade's apprentice, was trying to snap Tsunade out of her unreasonable stupor, but was met with little success. Naruto decided he didn't like Tsunade too much, what with her hate of his village and aspiration. He had made a bet with her that he would summon the Toad Boss by the end of a week and force her to be Hokage, but he could only summon tadpoles and polliwogs. It was to his embarrassment when he tried to summon a toad to fight with him against Tsunade the week before, only to get a toad no bigger than his palm, causing Tsunade to laugh uncontrollably at Naruto. Needless to say, it stung a little to the aspiring Hokage.

"You know what? Fuck this," Naruto grunted as he hoisted himself up off the ground for about the fifth time in thirty seconds. Kabuto had a simpering smirk on his face. He knew he was getting to the genin, and could see Naruto's desperate attempts and wild swings to try and counter Kabuto.

Kabuto knew a lot of Naruto's abilities, being the gifted spy that he was. He was able to find out about his elemental affinities, his superb and unorthodox taijutsu that Umino Iruka had taught him, use of the Kage Bunshin, his choice to become a hand seal master, and the new nickname that Naruto had picked up in several countries, most notably Oto and Suna (**Shuurajou Gamushara**). Thus, when Naruto forgot about his ability with ninjutsu that he favored so much, and the unconventional taijutsu he used, Kabuto knew Naruto was losing his cool.

Kabuto was thus taken aback when Naruto pulled out a leather string from under his shirt with a cigar tied to the end. Naruto was wearing his 'cigar chain' like a necklace!

"I only use this piece of crap when I need to," Naruto explained to Kabuto while looking at the cigar with disgust. He put one end to his lips and converted the chakra in his right index finger to fire with some difficulty. Naruto took a couple puffs on the cigar, this time not puking like he did in the Chunin Exams, but did turn a little pale. Naruto then used his unique skill of being a 'hand seal master' and flew through a few seals and shouted, "**Kokuengakure no Jutsu!**"

With that shout, black, billowing smoke erupted out of Naruto's mouth, covering the whole battlefield, even disrupting Jiraiya and Orochimaru's lopsided fight. Immediately, three of the of the four combatants started to cough as their eyes began to water, trying to see through the inky blackness of Naruto's smoke.

"Hehehe," they all heard Naruto (try to) evilly snicker. "This smoke not only obscures your vision, but I also made the poisons in the smoke more potent. If you guys can't find and defeat me in about three minutes, there is no chance of your survival, or at least being healthy, ever again!"

Orochimaru looked on with irritation as he found Kabuto, who held a glowing green hand to his chest. Kabuto had never been around any kind of smoke in any quantity, so was unused to the poisons in it, or the nicotine which was making his head spin.

"Kabuto, blow the smoke out of the clearing," Orochimaru hissed, mad that he could not do so himself. Orochimaru was not nearly as affected to the smoke as Kabuto, having several experiments and missions taking him into burning buildings and smoking corpses.

Kabuto attempted the seals for a **Fuuton: Daitoppa**, but he was unable to take a breath to blow the smoke out of the clearing, he even threw up a little when he tried to take a deep breath, inhaling the smoke even more.

"You disgusting little worm," Orochimaru hissed with disgust as vomit was splattered on Kabuto's chest, "summon Manda and we'll get above the smoke." Kabuto could only nod and completed the seals for the snake boss. Accordingly, they were now two stories above the dark abyss of Naruto's smoke.

"Orochimaru," Manda hissed out, "where are my sacrifices?" The snake boss asked with his usual contempt.

"There!" Orochimaru gestured, as he spotted Naruto carrying a passed out Jiraiya to Tsunade and Shizune, who were conveniently left out of the black smog. Tsunade was still gazing into a past she tried to forget and Jiraiya had lost consciousness due to Naruto's jutsu and lack of oxygen. Naruto and Shizune stared on with horror as the snake boss lunged at them quicker than lightning.

This was the scariest thing Naruto had experienced in his young life. However, in the time it took for Manda to reach the foursome, Naruto started to get angry. Angry that he would never become Hokage. Angry that he would lose the bet with the Old Hag and proving her wrong about the Hokages and the village. Most of all though, he was mad that he would die by being eaten by a big purple snake. His anger brought on a hazy, red chakra cloud, shrouding him with an almost liquid red cloak.

Almost on instinct, Naruto formed the seals for his own summoning. Luckily for Naruto, his work with hand seals had made him nearly as fast a Jonin in forming seals, and quickly bit his thumb and slammed his hand to the ground. In a less deadly cloud of smoke, the foursome were now three stories tall, setting atop Gamabunta's head.

Gamabunta had his sword raised over his head, blocking Manda's jaws from engulfing the four in its gaping maw. "Dammit Jiraiya," Gamabunta said, looking at the situation he was in, "you still owe me a drink from the last time I saved your ass."

"I summoned you," Naruto stated as he made his way to Gamabunta's forehead.

"You? A little pipsqueak! Are you sure?" The boss toad asked.

"Yeah," Naruto said angrily, "now are you going to help us or what!?"

"Fine, fine, don't get your diaper in a bunch," Gamabunta acquiesced, throwing Manda back. "Been a long time, Manda," Gamabunta said to snake, "I have been dying for a new pair of snake skin boots."

Manda hissed in irritation at the toad boss, as he obviously did not wear foot wear. "And I've been dying for some frog legs," Manda shot shot right back.

"Dammit, I'm a _toad_, not some sissy _frog_," Gamabunta growled out as he lunged for Manda. The sudden movement and bouncing around was enough to finally knock Tsunade out of her stupor, as she blinked rapidly, taking in her surroundings.

The two summon bosses quickly locked up, Manda trying to constrict Gamabunta, who had a webbed hand around the snake's throat. It was all Orochimaru needed as he shot off for Naruto, who could only stare with wide eyes at the speed Orochimaru moved, and the shocking sight of a sword coming from his mouth.

Sadly, for Orochimaru, he made a mistake he had not made in years and forgot about the other combatants, but was quickly reminded when Tsunade's fist shattered his jaw. The force was enough to knock him back to where Kabuto was still recovering from Naruto's smoke. Gingerly, Orochimaru got up and stared at a smirking Tsunade with hate filled eyes. He and Kabuto stayed only a second longer before they dispelled Manda and disappeared through Naruto's smoke.

"Well... damn." Tsunade said, turning around to the other atop Gamabunta's head. "I guess I'm going to be Hokage now, huh?" As she looked around Gamabunta's head, she saw Naruto, who was bent over after most of his chakra had been depleted summoning Gamabunta. He looked up and smirked at the new Hokage-to-be, and flipped her off. That quickly resulted in Naruto getting launched off Gamabunta's head byway of Tsunade's fist.

**Jutsu List:**

**Kokuengakure no Jutsu: **Hidden in Black Smoke Technique: Like Zabuza's Kirigaukure Jutsu, it hides the battlefield in black smoke. Unlike Zabuza's technique, it has amplified toxins from the smoke and nicotine affecting all combatants except Naruto, through his affinity for smoke, is immune.

**Shuurajou Gamushara:** Bloody Carnage Reckless Daredevil: Naruto's nickname he picked up due to his jutsu involving blood dolphins.

**AN:** I would like to apologize to all readers who felt this story became too close to canon. I tried to put my own spin on things, only using canon as a skeleton of sorts for my own story, but I guess I failed. I also hate stories that rehash all canon events, but a few I thought were needed and were pivotal to the story progression.

However, this story is done, with an epilogue coming soon. The follow up story will be vastly different from canon, having a vast time skip and a story that I have been wanting to get out for a very long time, but could not until this one was finished. So anyone who kinda liked this story, despite following canon, should stay tuned for my next one.

Also, both this story and _Wraith_ are my takes on the prophesy concerning Naruto, the one where he will either destroy the shinobi world or save it. Each story does one of these things.


	14. Epilogue: The Long Awaited Return!

**Disclaimer:** You know what I own.

**Epilogue: **The Long Awaited Return!

Tsunade sat at her desk, massaging her temples as she stared at the piles of paperwork surrounding her. For the last eight hours she had been trying to catch up on the daunting task, but to her horror, with each piece of legislation she finished, it seemed fifty more took its place.

She leaned back, rubbing the bridge of her nose. When she opened her eyes, they landed on the golden haired Hokage, causing her to inadvertently smile. She often caught herself gazing at the Yondaime Hokage, and easily replacing his face with another golden haired shinobi with whiskered cheeks and a stupid grin. She reminisced about Uzumaki Naruto quite often. That bastard had brought so much joy to her life, and so much agony as well, agony she would have never thought her broken heart would experience again.

She remembered before he left, how he would barge into her office, calling her 'baa-chan' and just shooting the breeze. She would get lost in conversations with the young blond, as he absent-mindedly handle her paper work and other facets of her job better than she could ever hope to do. Tsunade guessed being around Sarutobi-sensei for most of his young life and in the Hokage's office, that Naruto would pick up on the in's and out's of being Hokage.

Tsunade's and Naruto's talks often ended up with some bet that she lost, usually about him and a jutsu he was working on or thought about creating. After her fiftieth loss, she realized that she would never win a bet against the blond and vowed to always bet _against _him, because with her luck, he would always win.

But with the good times, came the bad. She remembered healing him when jutsus backfired, and when one nearly severed his arm (a manipulation of the Rasengan gone awry). The worst had to be when she sent Naruto, who made Chunin after she took over the helm of Hokage, led several other genin's in what could have been described as a suicide mission to retrieve Uchiha Sasuke. Reflecting back now, sending five genin to take on four shinobi on par with ANBU was a bad decision, one that haunted her. Luckily, they all survived, even dealing Orochimaru a blow by killing all but one of his personal guards.

However, Naruto had nearly died, receiving a lightning jutsu that obliterated one of his lungs. She remembered working non-stop for nearly a day to stabilize him, or at least she liked to think that. In reality, nothing in Tsunade's vast repertoire could be used to save the young shinobi. Naruto's resident did all of the work, as Tsunade sat at his bedside crying or pacing or some combination of the two. That still was not the worst of it, as her new apprentice at the time, Haruno Sakura had just lost her team-mate and also watched helplessly as her other temporary one lay in a coma.

But like always, Naruto recovered. He seemed more focused and less happy-go-lucky than before, but in all regards, back to normal. He trained harder and longer and visited Tsunade less, but still made his rounds to all his friends sowing happiness where he went like a farmer sow seeds for his crop.

Things only got worse though when Tsunade had to explain to Naruto about his burden... the Kyuubi. Naruto had taken that hard, asking why no one ever told him. He was especially mad at his two dead mentors, the Sandaime Hokage and Umino Iruka. It took hours of consoling and explaining by Tsunade that they could not reveal the information to Naruto until he reached the rank of Chunin. He was distracted even more so when Tsunade said that with each rank he gained another secret would be revealed to him. The ultimate secret came when he achieved the rank of Hokage. In a backwards way, this actually made Naruto happy. However, whoever had set this arrangement up was insane, but it also showed that this person also thought Naruto could be Hokage.

Things had gone back to normal for two weeks after the revelation, before her errant teammate came back to the village, and requested to take Naruto out of the village for three years on a training trip. Apparently, the stars had aligned and Orochimaru had to take another body instead of the rogue Uchiha's and the Akatsuki organization had gone into hiding, with rumors that it would last for three years. Tsunade reluctantly agreed to Jiraiya's request, sending Naruto off to the great unknown to get stronger to better protect himself, friends, and village.

The knock at the door startled Tsunade out of her reverie as her assistant, Shizune, walked in, carrying hospital reports. "Tsunade-sama, here are the hospital reports you asked for regarding Sakura-san," the mousy haired kunoichi stated as she sat the reports down, bowed to her master, and left the office as quietly as she entered.

'Finally,' Tsunade thought as she eagerly grabbed the reports that could distract her from her thoughts and paperwork. Tsunade was pleased by what she saw. Sakura had made great decisions regarding patients at the hospital. Sakura, to the surprise of Tsunade, had bloomed under her tutelage. After only eight months of training, Sakura was able to work in the hospital. And after two years of intense training, had been deemed and certified by Tsunade as a medic-nin, effectively ending their master-apprentice relationship. However, Sakura still came back to peck the older medic's brain for little nuggets of information and techniques, even picking up Tsunade's signature strength in the past year.

"Hey gorgeous," a husky, throaty voice whispered in Tsunade's ear, much to her surprise. "Miss me much?"

Tsunade's eyes widen with having not sensed the person creep up on her, and inadvertently blushed when the man's breath tickled her ear. The voice itself was a puzzle, as it only sounded vaguely familiar, perhaps because it was a whisper.

A booming laugh startled Tsunade out of her shock as she spun around, witnessing Jiraiya clap a young man's back. Tsunade could not see the young man's face, due to a wide straw hat on top of his head, with said head bowed. He wore an orange and black _uwagi_ on his upper body, with the sleeves cut off, exposing black bandaged arms from his wrist to his shoulder. His lower body consisted of a black _hakama_ with hideously orange _geta_ on his feet.

Tsunade could guess who it was from the colors of the young man's wardrobe and flirty greeting. Naruto had only one peer with how successful his own line of books were, explaining the in's and out's of picking up women. Jiraiya still held it over his head that _Icha Icha_ was still more popular than his own, _Hyakka no Iseki. _

"Tsunade," Jiraiya greeted in a playful manner, "did you just _blush_ because of my apprentice?"

However, before Tsunade could offer a flustered retort, Sakura had walked in with a handful of paperwork that Shizune had asked her to deliver to Tsunade.

"Shishou, I have more paperwork for-" she abruptly stopped when she noticed two men in Tsunade's office. One she instantly recognized as Jiraiya was clad in his usually bright red. She couldn't see the face of his companion, but knowing some of the details of the man's three year mission, and coloration of his companion, Sakura successfully deduced it was Naruto.

The paperwork in her hands fell to the floor as Sakura dropped it and practically shunshin'd to Naruto and enveloping him in a bone crushing hug. This had been the longest time in three years that she had been with any of her teammates, including Kakashi, who was away from the village constantly, sometimes for months at a time.

In Sakura's mad dash, she had knocked Naruto's straw hat off, exposing his face for the first time. Tsunade was immediately taken aback when she looked into his eyes. Instead of the normally brilliant azure eyes, Naruto's pupil's had changed into orange spirals that were slowly spinning.

"W-what happened to your eyes?" Tsunade asked Naruto, before turning her steely gaze to Jiraiya. Tsunade's remark caused Sakura to look up from Naruto's and gasping.

"We would also like to know," Koharu said, as she and Homura walked in to the office. Naruto and Homura gave a friendly wave to each other before Naruto shrugged.

"I did some experiments with a couple of seals," he explained lamely.

"Idiot," Sakura said, bopping him on the head in the process.

"My apprentice is much too humble for his own good," Jiraiya spoke up. He gave a nod to Naruto before his shoulders sagged.

"Fine, fine," Naruto began. "After I found out about the Kyuubi, and how I inadvertently used his chakra to change the make-up of my eyes, I refused to use his chakra unless I had to. But I also liked the benefits _his_ eyes gave me. So with the help of the pervert," here Naruto motioned at Jiraiya, much to the elder nin's annoyance ("_it's super-pervert"_ Jiraiya huffed), "we developed an array of seals that granted me the use of his eyes without the demonic chakra."

The two elders, Koharu and Homura nodded. "What exactly are your abilities, Naruto-kun?" Homura asked.

"Well, everything _his_ eyes did, really. I have better perception and can see chakra when jutsu's are in effect. Like the Sharingan, my eyes slow things down. But now, unlike before, I can cast genjutsu with my eyes." Naruto finished as he scratched the back of his head.

"Is that all?" Koharu questioned. Sakura and Tsunade looked at her with venom in their eyes at the subtle barbed.

"Nooo," Naruto said drawing the word out to annoy the old lady. "My ultimate technique is my focused Killing Intent."

"What does that mean?" The old kunoichi asked perplexed. Naruto eerily turned his head to meet her eyes. Koharu had to admit, she was entranced by the slowly spinning whirlpools in his azure orbs. That all changed when something happened, she couldn't explain it, but her breath caught in her throat as her heart beat quickened. As suddenly as it happened, it ended. She didn't know how she ended up on her back, lying on the floor, but there she was.

"That's what focused Killing Intent means," Naruto growled out. He looked at everyone else and boredly explained "Simply, it means I can focus all of my Killing Intent on one person so minutely, I could probably floor Kakashi like I did her."

"It's like a water jet," Jiraiya said as he took over the explanation. "Think of it like this; you toss a bucket of water on someone, preferably cold water on a white shirt, and get them wet. However, if you force the same amount of water through something like the hole in the needle of a syringe with enough force, use could kill them instead. That's what his eyes do." Sakura didn't really care about his explanation, still focusing on his errant comment about white shirts. Subsequently, Homura was as well, but with much more benign thoughts.

Koharu finally recovered and asked Naruto, "Can that process be replicated?" She was obviously thinking of populating Konoha with blood lines.

"I s'pose," Naruto shrugged, "if they have a crazy demon sealed in their belly." Naruto then pumped chakra in his body as his whole body literally glowed with tiny, dark purple seals covering his body. "None of these seals create these abilities," the blond began to explain, "ninety percent of these seals are merely for the design of my eye. Five percent stole the Kyuubi's eyes and changed mine, and the other five percent ensure that I can pass on this ability to my children." As his explanation finished, his body stopped glowing.

"What do you call your dojutsu?" Sakura asked with her head cocked to the side like an inquisitive kitten.

Naruto blushed as he nervously rubbed the back of his head. Jiraiya could only rub his forehead with his hand as Naruto gave an embarrassed grin, "I call it the _Uzumakigan_!" Sakura face vaulted. If it were anyone else than _Uzumaki_ Naruto, the name would have been aptly applied. Instead, everyone knew it was Naruto's hubris that resulted in the name.

"What did you have to sacrifice?" Tsunade asked with trepidation, thus ending easygoing visiting abruptly. Ever since Naruto began explaining about his seals, the pit of Tsunade's stomach began to drop. The complexity of the seal array ensured something vitally important had to be sacrificed, more so than the normal blood or chakra.

Naruto went back to his normal, nervous habit of rubbing the back of his head as he said, "Well, to get _sight_," he said as he closed his eyes, "you have to sacrifice _sight_," and when he opened his eyes again white, blind pupils greeted the room instead of the orange, swirling spirals.

FIN

**AN:** That about does 'er. About wraps 'er up. I'm excited for the second story, which takes place in a ten year time skip. Don't fret, though, everything will be explained more in that story as we see the progression of Naruto and his escapades. I'm not going to post it until I get two chapters written, don't know when that will be, but keep a look out for it. Also, anything that I might have missed in explanation, please let me know. I can go over it better in the next one or fix it in this one. Thanks to everyone for your support.

**Dictionary**

_Hyakka no Iseki_: _The Glorious Achievement of a Variety of Flowers_

_Uzumakigan: _The Whirlpool Eye

_Uwagi: _Martial Arts jacket


End file.
